2,200 New York Schoolchildren Gather to Commemorate National Missing Children's Day.

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 27, 1999--

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children 

and Canon Hold Special Educational Assembly

The month of May is a time to celebrate mothers, honor war veterans and commemorate something no parent wants to imagine.

At Chelsea Piers Thursday, 2,200 New York schoolchildren gathered to serve as a dramatic visual reminder that 2,200 children disappear every day in this country. These children were brought together by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and Canon, who sponsored and produced the National Missing Children's Day (May 25) event, to learn more about safety issues at an educational assembly.

TV journalist John Walsh, host of "America's Most Wanted: America Fights Back" TV program, and C. Virginia Fields, Manhattan Borough President, joined Ernie Allen, president and chief executive officer of the NCMEC, which also included a special video message from Tipper Gore, wife of Vice President Al Gore. Canon executives unveiled several programs to support the NCMEC's "Picture Them Home" campaign which focuses on educating the public about the importance of photos in finding missing children.

"Our `Picture Them Home' campaign is a national call to action for everyone to look at photos of missing children - you can help save a life," said Allen. "We also encourage parents to keep their children's photos updated. Canon is instrumental in helping us meet these goals and we can think of no better partner to have when it comes to building awareness for the power of photos in these recovery efforts."

Filling an entire ice hockey rink at Chelsea Piers, the schoolchildren ranged in age from 4 to 18 and attend schools in the New York boroughs of the Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan and Queens. The topic of the day was "Picture Them Home," the NCMEC campaign of which Canon is a major supporter. According to a national survey by the Roper Organization one out of every seven missing children is found because someone identified him or her through a poster or flier the person had seen. In addition, the NCMEC and its 17,000 law enforcement agency partners nationwide advise that photos are the most powerful tool they have, even more important than fingerprints, in finding a missing child. The campaign urges parents to keep updated photos of their children noting each child's age, weight, height and other information on the back of the photo -- it could become the most important tool they have if their child is missing.

Canon, recognized worldwide as the leader in cameras, optics and printing technology, has embraced the NCMEC as one of its core philanthropic efforts to "protect America's most valuable resources: children and the environment." Canon's "Bring Missing Children Home" program has two goals: public education and contributing its technology expertise to the recovery effort.

"Our partnership with the National Center is a natural one - we're both dedicated to `visual communications,'" says Tim Andree, vice president and general manager of Corporate Communications for Canon U.S.A. "Canon technology and our public awareness campaigns have already helped in the recovery of 15 children to date and we're dedicated to helping NCMEC continue to `picture them home.'"

On the technology front, Canon has donated Color Bubble Jet printers, color scanners and digital cameras to 33 police departments nationwide to help speed the creation of missing-children fliers. The equipment has helped law enforcement decrease the time for flier creation from days to just a couple of hours. To date, these police departments feel that the Canon products have been a contributing factor in recovering five missing children.

Canon also has designed a customized 53-foot-long truck traveling to special events nationwide which includes a station to create PhotoID cards, a digital "driver's license" for a child which the parent keeps on hand just in case.

Education efforts include Canon's print advertising and TV Public Service Announcements (PSAs) designed to build awareness for looking at missing-children photos more closely and encouraging parents to keep an updated photo of their child. There are two different creative concepts in the print campaign, one featuring the faces of 30 missing children which has helped to find 10 children in 1998 and the other designed to highlight the importance of photos in finding missing children. These print ads ran Thursday in USA Today and will run in the May 31 issue of the New Yorker. The TV PSAs feature "Picture Them Home" spokeswoman and TV talkshow host Leeza Gibbons and actor Aidan Quinn.

A new Web site, www.picturethemhome.com, features a special National Missing Children's Day offer for a colorful digital watch, each one featuring the name of a missing child free of charge to the first 2,200 online registrants. In addition, the educational assembly event will be broadcast live on the new Web site beginning at 10:30 a.m. (ET) Thursday.

In addition Canon has partnered with the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and the Points of Light Foundation on a national poster campaign. Featuring the photos of 20 missing children, the colorful posters are currently being distributed and posted in schools, community centers, Boys & Girls Club meeting sites and other key locations. The poster campaign will continue indefinitely and Canon and its partners hope to distribute at least 50,000 posters nationwide.

Providing cutting-edge technology products has been a hallmark of Canon for over 60 years. A pioneer in optics and lenses, imaging and Bubble Jet printing, Canon is recognized as a $24 billion worldwide technology leader. As a Top Three patent holder, Canon owns more than 10,000 patents on Bubble Jet technology alone. It is this dedication to creating superior products, which allows Canon to be such a valuable partner to organizations such as the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and its law enforcement network. Canon technology is changing the way people work at the office and at home and can even help save a life. For more information about the Canon "Bring Missing Children Home" program, visit the Canon Web site at www.picturethemhome.com.

Note to editors: The Educational Assembly Event can be seen on the www.picturethemhome.com Web site beginning at 10:30 a.m. (ET) on May 27.