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Harris Bank Sponsors 2004 YWCA Leader Luncheon Racial Justice Award Honoring One of Chicago’s Outstanding Woman’s Contributions to Racial Equality

CHICAGO, October 13, 2004 — Harris Bank is pleased to announce its sponsorship of the 2004 YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago Leader Luncheon Racial Justice Award. This year marks the 32nd anniversary of the YWCA Leader Luncheon, an event that has recognized more than 2 00 women for their outstanding career, civic and social justice achievements and is the YWCA's largest annual fundraiser. The luncheon will be held on October 14th at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago.

Harris will be presenting this year's Racial Justice Award to Dr. Linda Kaste, Associate Professor and Director of Predoctoral Dental Public Health for the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry.

Dr. Kaste has devoted her career to the oral health needs of underserved populations. Her leadership was instrumental in obtaining a $1.5 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for the College. The grant will help prepare a competent oral healthcare workforce committed to treating the needs of minority and lower income populations with limited access to dental care. The intention of the grant was to partner students with dental clinics through out Illinois to provide care, particularly in urban and rural communities. The grant will also be used to promote diversity in the dental workforce by increasing minority recruitment and enrollment among students, staff and faculty of the College of Dentistry.

"Given our long standing commitment in the support of diversity, both with our employees and in the communities we serve, Harris is very proud to sponsor the Racial Justice Award this year," said Erin McInerney, Executive Vice President, Harris Bank. "Racism in our society impacts many different ethnic and racial groups. With this reward, we are recognizing the challenges as well as the accomplishments in creating an anti-racist and multi-cultural society by honoring Dr. Linda Kaste. She is a woman whose work has had a positive impact on thousands of people's lives and is an inspiration to us all."

Before joining the University of Illinois at Chicago, Kaste had considerable experience working for social justice in oral health. While at the Medical University of South Carolina she started a program to train dental students to work effectively with low-income an d minority groups. She has served as a volunteer dentist in the Dominican Republic for 17 years. She worked with the Boston Health Link Homeless Shelters in providing dental services and promoted oral health among Native American populations as a consultant for the Indian Health Service in Arizona. Kaste has authored more than 100 papers, abstracts and presentations on topics related to access to dental care and oral health status. She has received numerous honors for her research and community efforts, including theAmerican Association of Public Health Dentistry President's Special Recognition Award in 1999, an American Dental Association Certificate of Recognition in 1996 and the National Institutes of Health Special Service Award in 1993.

For more than 125 years, the YWCA of Metropolitan Chicago has served the interests of women, girls and families. The YWCA is committed to empowering women and working to eliminate racism. The YWCA serves 100,000 women, children and families each year through child care services, youth development programs, violence prevention education, rape crisis intervention, counseling and anti-racism programming.

About Harris Bank
Harris is an integrated financial service organization providing more than 1.5 million personal, business, corporate and institutional clients with banking, lending, investing and financial management solutions. The community banking network of Harris is one of the largest in Illinois, with nearly 160 full-service locations throughout Chicagoland and more than 450 Harris ATMs. Under the Harris trademark is Harrisdirect, a leading provider of direct investing and investment advisory services to informed investors with long-term financial goals as well as third-party brokerage services to institutional clients; Harris Private Bank, a trusted advisor offering customized banking and lending, financial planning, trust and estate administration, wealth transfer and family office services; and Harris Nesbitt, a premier mid-market corporate and investment bank delivering investment and corporate banking, treasury services, market risk management, institutional investing and research. Harris is a member of BMO Financial Group (NYSE, TSX: BMO). For more information, please visit www.harrisbank.com .

Media Contact:
Maeve Kiley, maeve.kiley@harrisbank.com, 312-293-8905

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