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Chinese-American baby will get Toys 'R' prize

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 7, 2007

NEW YORK - Toys "R" Us Inc. agreed on Saturday to award a Chinese-American infant a $25,000 prize in its New Year's baby contest, a reversal after the company came under fire for disqualifying the girl because her mother is not a legal U.S. resident.

Chinese-American advocates said they were infuriated by Toys "R" Us and launched an e-mail campaign on the issue.

The company responded by awarding each of the three babies in the grand prize pool of the "First Baby of the Year Sweepstakes" a $25,000 savings bond. Toys "R" Us is the parent company of Babies "R" Us, which sponsored the contest.

Yuki Lin was born at the stroke of midnight at New York Downtown Hospital, according to hospital officials. The company had said the prize would go to the first American baby born in 2007.

But the prize instead went to Jayden Swain, born 19 seconds after midnight in Gainesville, Ga., after the contest administrator was told that Yuki's mother "was not a legal resident," Toys "R" Us spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh said. Eligibility rules required babies' mothers to be legal U.S. residents, Waugh said.

Attempts to reach Yuki's parents, Yan Zhu Liu and Han Lin, were unsuccessful early Saturday. Their immigration status was not clear.

Janet Keller had been worried that her winning grandchild would lose the money. She had said revisiting the contest would be unfair.

The third baby was born in Bay Shore, N.Y., to a couple from El Salvador.

[Last modified January 7, 2007, 00:48:50]