Step2 Wins Two National Parenting Center Awards

STREETSBORO, OHIO — May 5, 2009 — The Step2® Company has earned yet another prestigious award for the company's line of products. The National Parenting Center has honored Step2's Sand & Water Transportation Station and Thinkativity's Feed & Learn Singing Croc with a seal of approval for price, packaging, design, stimulation, desirability, age appropriateness and creativity.

The Step2® Company, LLC is a family company with toy brands including Step2®, Infantino®, and Thinkativity® that foster learning and development through creative play in children from birth to school-age years. The company designs and produces new toys that receive recognition every year for their durability, creative play value, and fun designs.

The Thinkativity Feed & Learn Singing Croc is an interactive crocodile that sings 26 different songs about letters and words. It includes letters A-Z that store in the croc's tummy to help children learn the alphabet. The Step2 Sand & Water Transportation Station allows children to jump on board the transportation station of fun. It promotes hours of creative play with two compartments for both sand and water with drain plugs for easy clean-up.

"We greatly appreciate this award from such a highly regarded organization," said Step2 CEO Scott Levin. "We take pride in providing families creative toys that are safe, fun, and provide hours of imaginative play for kids."

The National Parenting Center's Seal of Approval is a peer-to-peer parent review program that recognizes products and services that have been met with a "thumbs up" by parents. Since 1989, The National Parenting Center has been a leading parent advocacy organization, offering advice and information to parents on issues ranging from pregnancy through adolescence.

The Step2 Company not only designs and produces innovative toys, it also provides parents and child care professionals access to learn and share information about the importance of creative play. CreativePlayPlus.com is a ground breaking blog launched from an alliance between the Step2 Company and the renowned Schubert Center for Child Studies. The site offers a variety of topics related to play and provides visitors with relevant news stories, expert research, articles and other blogs that center around the topic of play.

For more information on Step2 products visit www.step2.com. For more information on the National Parenting Center visit www.tnpc.com/.

About The Step2 Company:
Step2, based in Streetsboro, Ohio, is the largest American manufacturer of preschool and toddler toys and the world's largest rotational molder of children's and home products, including children's play kitchens, playhouses, outdoor toys and ride on toys, as well as home products such as mailboxes, gardening aids and trash cans. Infantino, headquartered in San Diego, Calif. is a leading designer and international distributor of innovative and original infant, toddler, and preschool products. Featuring fashion-forward designs, the popular product lines include classic creative baby toys and puzzles, innovative soft baby carriers, and simple, no-fuss baby travel systems. New Jersey-based Thinkativity is a leading innovator of electronic and early learning toys promoting inventive play patterns through original musical compositions and stories that inspire children to explore, play and learn.

CONTACT:
Dotti Franks, Vice President Marketing Communications
dfranks@step2.net; 330-656-0440

Alexis Black, Current Lifestyle Marketing
ablack@currentlm.com; 312-929-0504