Toys "R" Us Agrees to Award Prize to First Three Babies Born

Toys "R" Us agreed to award a Chinese-American baby, a $25,000 savings bond for being one of the first babies born in 2007, after originally being disqualified.

The company disqualified the child from their New Year's Eve baby contest for not meeting the citizenship guidelines. The contest rules specified that in order to win the "First Baby of the Year Sweepstakes," the mother of the child had to be a legal US citizen in order to be eligible.

However, the company reversed their decision after controversy was sparked by Chinese-American advocates.

The Associated Press reported that Chinese-American advocates were "infuriated by Toys "R" Us, which opened its first mainland China store less than a month ago." They also reported that the advocated launched an e-mail campaign on the issue.

"People are just pretty much outraged," John Wang, president of the New York-based Asian American Business Development Center told the AP, "She was deprived of $25,000 intended to be used for her college education because of who her parents are."

The baby, Yuki Lin was born exactly at mid-night in a downtown New York hospital. At this time the immigration status of baby Yuki's parents, Yan Zhu Liu and Han Lin, both 22, is not exactly clear.

The AP reported a statement by Toys "R" Us as saying "We love all babies. Our sweepstakes was intended to welcome the first baby of 2007 and prepare for its future." The statement went on to say, "We deeply regret that this sweepstakes became a point of controversy."

After Lin was disqualified the Toys "R" Us company awarded the prize to second baby born on New Year's Day.

That child's name is Jayden Swain, and she was born at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, Ga. Swain was reported to have been born just 19 seconds after midnight.

In an effort to totally resolve the issue the company awarded Swain the $25,000 savings bond prize and also awarded a third $25,000 savings bond to a child born in Bay Shore, N.Y., to a couple from El Salvador.

The names of that couple and their baby were not available.