The Bay Game Is Back!
Summer is officially here!

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ANNAPOLIS — It’s bigger, it’s better, it’s in color! Summer is around the corner and the Bay Game, Maryland’s favorite game for youngsters to pass the time and learn about Maryland’s environment while on the journey over the Bay Bridge to the beach, is back!

Under soggy skies on the banks of the Chesapeake Bay, Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) Secretary C. Ronald Franks today introduced the all-color Bay Game to 370 pre-K-4th grade students from Walter S. Mills Parole Elementary School.

“One important tool we can use to help the Bay get healthy again is education. The more people – kids and adults – learn and understand the Bay and its problems, the more they will be able to help,” said Secretary Franks. The kickoff event was held at Sandy Point State Park.

The 2005 Bay Game (the 9th Annual) for the first time has been printed entirely in color and has four more pages than last year for a total of 32 pages. This year’s edition features Maryland’s First Family, Governor Robert L. Ehrlich, Jr., First Lady Kendel S. Ehrlich and their sons, Drew and Josh. It also features marine and land creatures that live in the vicinity of each Bay Game site and three new corporate sponsors.

Maryland’s free annual Bay Game, the first of its type in the country, is designed to be played from the back seat of a vehicle while riding to Maryland’s beaches along US Rt. 50 and MD Rt. 404 on the beautiful Eastern Shore. The Bay Game, for ages three and up, increases players’ awareness of how humans and the environment, especially the Chesapeake Bay, are interrelated and interdependent. It also gives young people an activity to keep them occupied during the long car ride.

The Bay Game is distributed by the Bay Bridge at staffed tollbooths. A downloadable version is also available at www.dnr.maryland.gov/baygame. That site also has forms for ordering Bay Games for classrooms, events and groups, or you can call 1-877-620-8DNR and request copies.

The game is produced by DNR and paid for entirely by donations from public and private sponsors. This year DNR partnered with more private and public organizations to produce an even better bay game. Partners include:

• Chesapeake Bay Trust
• Constellation Energy
• Delmarva Power
• Forman, Inc.
• Henry H. Lewis Contractors, LLC
• Maryland Departments of Agriculture, Natural Resources, Environment and Transportation
• Maryland Soybean Board
• McDonald’s of the Eastern Shore
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• Ocean City Maryland
• Potomac Electric Power Company
• Pepsi Bottling Ventures of Delmarva
• Shore Fun Mini Golf of Kent Island
• Subway of Queenstown

Created in 1998, the Bay Game has educated nearly 2 million children on the basics of conservation biology and the importance of Maryland’s natural resources throughout the mid-Atlantic region.

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May 24, 2005

The Maryland Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is the state agency responsible for providing natural and living resource-related services to citizens and visitors. DNR manages more than 446,000 acres of public lands and 18,000 miles of waterways, along with Maryland's forests, fisheries and wildlife for maximum environmental, economic and quality of life benefits. A national leader in land conservation, DNR-managed parks and natural, historic and cultural resources attract 11 million visitors annually. DNR is the lead agency in Maryland's effort to restore the Chesapeake Bay, the state's number one environmental priority. Learn more at www.dnr.maryland.gov