Sunday Times 2
Virtual competition to save the ocean
Hilton Sri Lanka is joining hands with Big Spark by Gateway, SOS Children’s Villages, A+Plus Kids, YES101 and Funday Times in launching a three-month campaign from this month in keeping with its policy of driving responsible tourism by incorporating sustainable practices to reduce the environmental footprint.
The Save the Ocean team set to free turtles
“The objective of this campaign is to increase global awareness on the damage being done to the oceans and sea creatures by engaging children to think creatively on how to make the world we live in a better place. This will also create global awareness for Sri Lanka as a unique and sustainable tourist destination,” says Christopher Zappia, Cluster Commercial Director of Hilton Hotels Sri Lanka.
The “Save the Ocean” campaign is a virtual event where children from across the globe, between the ages of 3 and 16, will be encouraged to send in short video submissions with their creative ideas on how they can help. They can enter under one of five “Save the Ocean” categories: Poster competition; essay; creative writing and poetry; build a creative aquarium at home; design robots for ocean exploration and conservation; and design a game using any coding platform with the theme being “Save the Ocean”.
Big Spark by Gateway, the technology partner for this initiative, will manage the page created exclusively for this competition on Flipgrid. Competitors can submit their entries by visiting the link https://flipgrid.com/savetheocean2020. Entries close on November 15, 2020.
Big Spark, by Gateway offers programmes in Computing, Language and Performing Arts; that enable children to become future-ready, with the promise of illuminating little minds to become trail blazers.
“At the end of the three-month campaign, for every 10 submissions we will collect 1 kg of plastic waste through a beach cleanup and release one baby turtle to the ocean. So the more submissions we receive, the more we collect and release,” Mr. Zappia explains.
Furthermore, attractive prizes will be awarded by a panel of judges for the most creative and relevant submission.
This campaign will target schools across Sri Lanka and will also reach up to 50,000 children from the SOS Children’s Villages in 1e Asian countries – Sri Lanka, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Laos, Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, China, South Korea and Japan.
SOS Children’s Villages is a global federation working to protect and care for children who have lost parental care, or who stand at risk of losing it. The beach cleanup and the releasing of turtles from the turtle hatcheries in Sri Lanka will take place after the prize winners are chosen with all stakeholders participating: Hilton Colombo, Hilton Colombo Residences, Double Tree by Hilton Weerawilla Rajawarna Resort, Hilton Yala, Big Spark by Gateway, SOS Children’s Villages, A+Plus Kids (television partner) and Funday Times (print media partner), powered by YES101.
For more information, visit www.hiltoncolombo1.com/promotions/save-the-ocean
