CamelBak Partners with Los Angeles School District to Promote Wellness

Petaluma, CA (April 9, 2008) – CamelBak Products, LLC, industry leader in the development of innovative hydration solutions, is pleased to announce their partnership with the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) in a health and wellness research project aimed at preventing childhood obesity.

CamelBak has donated two thousand reusable CamelBak Better Bottlesâ„¢ and a sustainable hydration station to Carnegie Middle School in hopes of increasing availability and consumption of water for students. The LAUSD research project seeks to empower students to develop the life skills and decision-making necessary for a healthy and successful future.

“There is a great deal of research that indicates a link between consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and health issues,” said CamelBak CEO Sally McCoy. “As a leader in hydration, CamelBak is helping to support research to improve the health and wellness of our children by replacing sugary drinks with fresh, free and convenient water.”

The Carnegie Middle School research project is funded by NIH and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and will run through May 2008. Results from the research program will be published by a number of medical, nutritional and scholastic journals in July 2008.

“Kids today have an incredible number of factors competing for their attention and one of our major challenges in promoting a healthy lifestyle to adolescents is breaking through all the different stimuli they’re facing,” comments Sheila Lamb, Healthy Start Coordinator at Carnegie Middle School. “This is an unprecedented partnership and one we hope will help our kids see healthy lifestyle alternatives in a different light.”

The CamelBak Better Bottleâ„¢ represents a new standard of performance and convenience in re-usable water bottles. Available in twelve colors in sizes of .5 liter, .75 liter and 1 liter, this innovative product uses the spill-proof CamelBak Big Biteâ„¢ Valve, which offers easy sipping for active and on-the-go-consumers. School officials say initial feedback from the program has been positive.

“Our sixth and seventh graders have shown solid interest in the program and we’re hopeful that more and more kids will get excited about the opportunity each day,” said Pat Donahoe, Carnegie Middle School Principal. “We also hope that this program will be utilized by other schools as a means to help serve students free, palatable drinking water and help them make healthy life decisions.”

For more information on CamelBak visit: www.camelbak.com. To help support Healthy Start programs in California and throughout the United States please visit: www.healthy-start.com.

About CamelBak
CamelBak Products, LLC. is the originator of the Hands-Free Hydration system. Since 1991, CamelBak’s state of the art packs and hydration systems have benefited athletes, outdoor enthusiasts, and soldiers around the world. CamelBak continues to deliver innovative hydration products to the market with the belief in the performance advantage that proper hydration can deliver in any situation. The company is privately held by Bear Stearns Merchant Banking and is headquartered in Petaluma, California.

About BSMB
BSMB invests private equity capital in compelling buyouts, recapitalizations and growth capital opportunities alongside superior management teams. Since its formation in 1997, BSMB has been an investor in 67 portfolio companies. BSMB manages over $5 billion of private equity capital. More information about BSMB is available at http://www.bsmb.com.


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