Foresters Signs Multi-Year, Multi-Million Dollar Deal To Help 17 Million Kids In 170 Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Throughout North America

Unique Partnership Makes Foresters Title Sponsor Of Children's Miracle Network International Fund Raising And Awareness Campaigns Through 2005

Toronto, Ontario (January 16, 2002)  - In an unprecedented charitable sponsorship agreement for Children's Miracle Network, The Independent Order of Foresters (Foresters) has signed a four-year sponsorship agreement valued at more than $14 million. The agreement will help the non-profit organization execute several international fund raising and awareness campaigns, translating into more than $60 million dollars in funds raised each year.

The Toronto-based, million-member Foresters is an international financial services organization offering a wide range of financial products and services, including life insurance and annuities. It provides its members with fraternal benefits and unique opportunities to play meaningful roles in their communities, making this sponsorship a perfect fit.

"Foresters is dedicated to making a difference in the lives of our members and their communities with a particular focus on the well being of children," said Foresters President and CEO, Michael White. " So partnering with Children's Miracle Network and its 170 local children's hospitals in the United States and Canada is not just a good idea, it makes good business sense."

Children's Miracle Network President and CEO, Mick Shannon, said his organization has never had an agreement with any corporate partner that means so much to the well-being of North American children. "As a result of Foresters support Children's Miracle Network anticipates raising more than $240 million in the next four years. I can't tell you what that means to our community dependent, non-profit children's hospitals," said Shannon. "Generous corporate partners like this makes it possible for us to keep 100 percent of local donations in the community they were raised in to help local kids."

Recognizing the broad scope of such a monumental commitment, Paula Oyer Berezin, President of IEG Consulting and publisher of the industry standard, Sponsorship Report, said, "The amount of Foresters' commitment and the length of its term make this one of the largest sponsorship of a charitable organization."

Foresters will be given exclusive rights as the international sponsor in the Life Insurance and Financial Services category and is international title sponsor of 
Children's Miracle Network's Champions Across America, Champions Across Canada, and Radiothon programs. The Champions Across America and Canada programs highlight a child from each state and province who has been successfully treated at a Children's Miracle Network hospital. The children travel to their nation's capital to demonstrate the efforts of children's hospitals to local and national leaders, including the President and Prime Minister.

The Radiothon program is an extensive fund raising campaign that partners children's hospitals with local radio stations and listeners. Children's Miracle Network staff helps in recruiting new stations (about 150 stations participate now), providing training and workshops, promoting co-branding, developing support programs, and assisting individual stations with planning and execution.


About Children's Miracle Network
Headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, Children's Miracle Network is an international non-profit organization dedicated to generating funds and awareness programs to benefit children treated at 170 children's hospitals throughout the United States and Canada. Children's Miracle Network raises funds through innovative cause-marketing promotions and other programs developed to meet the business objectives of its sponsors. Children's Miracle Network also produces the largest national television fundraiser in North America, broadcast from Walt Disney World the weekend following the U.S. Memorial Day holiday. Children's Miracle Network's hallmark is that 100 percent of locally generated donations stay in the community to benefit kids treated at the local Children's Miracle Network hospital.

About Foresters 
Foresters is a million-member strong fraternal benefit society operating in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom. For more than 125 years, The Independent Order of Foresters has been dedicated to making a difference in the lives of members' families and the communities in which they live. Foresters works with members to understand their financial needs and to identify the financial products and services, including life insurance and annuities that, combined with their own package of fraternal benefits, will best provide for their family's future. Foresters also contributes significant funds in community investment and provides members with unique opportunities to play meaningful roles in the lives of those around them.