Free Child ID Kits Available at Stores on September 3 BENTONVILLE, Ark., Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Child safety and wellness are topics parents and guardians take very seriously. Recognizing the need for child safety education, Wal-Mart and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children(R) (NCMEC) will partner with Abbott's Ross Products Division to host the first-ever Smart Parent ... Safe Baby event on Sat., Sept. 3 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Wal-Mart stores nationwide. On that day, parents and guardians will receive a free child ID kit. The kit includes leading DNA technology which requires no special storage and will keep for up to 14 years, safety information for parents and guardians, and a placeholder for an updated child photo. During the Smart Parent ... Safe Baby event, parents and guardians will also receive a resource book with safety tips from NCMEC and baby wellness facts from partners such as Similac(R) Advance(R), Pedialyte(R), PediaSure(R), and Ensure Healthy Mom(TM). "We are excited about the opportunity to partner with Wal-Mart and Ross Products to educate parents and guardians about child safety and wellness," said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC. "Being prepared and discussing prevention tips with children are the keys to keeping kids safer." The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children provides the following tips to help parents and guardians practice good safety measures: -- Keep an accessible, up-to-date, good quality photograph of your child in case of an emergency. -- Never let young children go places alone. Be clear about the places and homes they can visit. -- Know where your children are and whom they are with at all times. -- Never leave children unattended in an automobile, whether it's running or not. -- Talk openly to your children about safety. Make an outing to a mall or park a "teachable" moment. "We take pride in partnering with parents every day to help infants and toddlers thrive," said Gary E. McCullough, President, Ross Products Division, Abbott. "We welcome this opportunity to provide helpful education about safety and wellness for young children and to give parents greater peace of mind through our support for the Smart Parent ... Safe Baby event." Wal-Mart encourages parents and guardians to take advantage of this in- store event and receive helpful child safety information and a free child ID kit, while supplies last on this day. A number of partners have joined together to sponsor the Smart Parent ... Safe Baby event, including Abbott, whose brands include Similac Advance, PediaSure, Pedialyte, and Ensure Healthy Mom. Other vendor partners include Fisher Price, Procter & Gamble, Nestle, General Mills, and Wal-Mart Portrait Studios. To learn more about the Smart Parent ... Safe Baby event, visit baby connection at http://walmart.com/ after August 15, 2005. For further safety information, visit NCMEC at http://www.missingkids.com/ or call 1-800-THE-LOST. About Wal-Mart Wal-Mart has been a partner with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children since 1996, upon the introduction of Code Adam, a safety alert and associate training program in all Wal-Mart and SAM'S CLUB stores. Today, Code Adam is used in more than 45,000 locations nationwide. Wal-Mart also assists the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children through its Missing Children Poster Boards, located at the front entrance of its stores, and through Road Watch, a missing child alert system used by all Wal-Mart trucks across the country. The programs are a part of the Wal-Mart and SAM'S CLUB Foundation ( http://www.walmartfoundation.org/ ). Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates Wal-Mart Stores, Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and SAM'S CLUB locations in the United States. Internationally, the company operates in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, China, Germany, Japan, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Korea and the United Kingdom. The company's securities are listed on the New York and Pacific stock exchanges under the symbol WMT. See http://www.walmartfacts.com/ for more information. Online merchandise sales are available at http://www.walmart.com/ . About the National Center For Missing & Exploited Children NCMEC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. NCMEC's congressionally mandated CyberTipline, a reporting mechanism for child sexual exploitation, has handled more than 313,000 leads. Since its establishment in 1984, NCMEC has assisted law enforcement with more than 106,000 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 92,000 children. For more information about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit http://www.missingkids.com/ . About Abbott Abbott's Ross Products Division is a longtime leader in the U.S. nutritional marketplace, well known for its leading Similac(R) Advance(R) and Isomil(R) Advance(R) infant formulas, Pedialyte(R) and PediaSure(R) Brands, as well as its entire line of other pediatric nutritional products. Abbott pioneered the market for adult nutritionals more than three decades ago, and today, the Healthy Living family of nutrition brands includes Ensure(R), Glucerna(R), ZonePerfect(R) and EAS(R). For more information about Abbott's Ross Products Division, visit http://www.ross.com/ . Abbott is a global, broad-based health care company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceuticals and medical products, including nutritionals, devices and diagnostics. The company employs more than 60,000 people and markets its products in more than 130 countries. Abbott's news releases and other information are available on the company's Web site at http://www.abbott.com/ . DATASOURCE: Abbott's Ross Products Division CONTACT: National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Communications Department, +1-703-837-6111; Jacquie Young or Melissa O'Brien of Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., +1-479-273-4314; or Keri Butler of Abbott's Ross Products Division, +1-614-624-7543 Web site: http://www.missingkids.com/ http://www.walmartfoundation.org/ http://www.walmart.com/ http://www.abbott.com/ http://www.ross.com/

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