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For immediate release:

ROBERT BATEMAN CONTEST WINNERS ANNOUNCED!

Kelowna, British Columbia - June 4th, 2004 - The winners of the 2004 Robert Bateman Writing & Art Contest will be announced and personally congratulated by Robert Bateman on June 4th, 2004 at 1.30pm in the Theatre at OUC KLO Campus in Kelowna, British Columbia. Media welcome.

Thousands of art entries were received this year from students from across Canada depicting Canadian species at risk. The writing entries focused on climate change. Students were from all school systems, including public, private and home-schools. Winning entries will be published in the 2005 Robert Bateman Contest Calendar which will be available nationwide in September.

The winners of this year’s contest are:

Art Contest Winners: Gigi Chan, Grade 3; Burnaby, BC Ester Fan, Grade 3; Richmond, BC Nick Wargel, Grade 2; Lisle, ON Lawrence Fan, Grade 5; Richmond, BC Sophia Mitchell, Grade 7; Maple Ridge, BC Irene Peng, Grade 7; Vancouver, BC Henry Pai, Grade 9; Vancouver, BC Joey Yeh, Grade 9; Vancouver, BC Rio Rah, Grade 9; Calgary, AB Devon Saunders, Grade 11; Borden, SK Karen Wong, Grade 12; Vancouver, BC Gordon Yiu, Grade 11; Vancouver, BC

Writing Contest Winners: Nikki Falavena, Grade 4; Winnipeg, AB Dave Post, Grade 4; Calgary, AB Markus Nielson, Grade 2; Calgary, AB Doris Fulford, Grade 7; Toronto, ON Sarah Wolinsky, Grade 7; Richmond Hill, ON Cody Kulchitsky, Grade 5, Edmonton, AB Sin Ning Leung, Grade 10; Richmond, BC Nicole Li, Grade 10; Richmond, BC Xiao Lin, Grade 8; Richmond Hill, ON Marissa Poisson, Grade 11; Belle River, ON Sean Hitrec, Grade 12; Vancouver, BC Linda Chew, Grade 11; Burnaby, BC

The students will be congratulated by Robert Bateman and Peter Lee, Board of Directors, Canadian Nature Federation. The congratulatory celebration takes during Canadian Environment Week in order to draw attention to the contest’s theme of climate change and species at risk.

This contest was inspired by Robert Bateman and launched in March 2000 by the Honourable David Anderson, Federal Minister of Environment. Since that time, over 140,000 writing and art entries have been received from students across the country.

Bateman notes, “It is inspiring to see that each year the contest exceeds the entries of the previous year. Canadians should be proud of the talent of its young artists, writers and naturalists. I certainly am!”

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Samples of winning artwork will be emailed to the media upon request.

Further information: Jen Donaldson, (250) 861-9474 or jdonaldson@mstar-ca.com