POINT BLANCHE:--- Port St. Maarten Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mark Mingo would like to congratulate one of the first place winners in the 2014 Florida Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) annual FCCA Foundation Children's Environmental Poster Competition 10-year-old Diya Sachdev of M.A.C. Rev. John A. Gumbs Campus and third-place winner 15-year old Donna Ferreira.
13-destinations throughout the Caribbean and Latin American region participated in the contest. The second first place winner is from The Bahamas.
Diya Sachdev's poster, "Helping the Environment," shows that helping the environment is just like cleaning your surroundings and that this simple action saves creatures, maintains a healthy society and promotes happiness for citizens and tourists.
"On behalf of the Board of Supervisory Directors, management and staff of Port St. Maarten, I would like to congratulate Diya Sachdev, her family and the M.A.C. Rev. John Gumbs Campus on this win for her school and St. Maarten as well as 15-year-old Donna Ferreira.
"The environment is a very important issue for our country, and our industry, tourism overall, stay-over and cruise, is partly based on the natural beauty of our surroundings. We must therefore play our roles as stewards of our environment to make sure that our foot print left behind is very small.
"We must take the advice offered and portrayed in Diya's poster and practice it every day, because each and every one of us makes a difference when it comes to our environment. Once again congratulations to Diya Sachdev, her family and her school, the M.A.C. Rev. John. A. Gumbs Campus," Harbour Group of Companies CEO Mark Mingo said on Sunday.
Sachdev's first place as a winner affords her an educational scholarship of US$3000, along with a donation for her school to purchase art supplies.
Third-place winners will receive US$1000, with the same amount going to the winners' of the schools for art supplies.
