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Jiminy Cricket Environmentality Challenge Award Ceremony Rewards Young Heroes

Program inspires students to make a little bit of difference

HONG KONG (February 17, 2005) - Over 250 primary students were formally acknowledged today as "Environmentality Heroes" in recognition of their hard work and extraordinary achievements during the Jiminy Cricket's Environmentality Challenge 2004/05.

Jiminy Cricket's Environmentality Challenge is a partnership program held in conjunction with the Environmental Protection Department and Hong Kong Disneyland.

The program provides teachers with an opportunity to lead their students from a mere awareness of environmental concerns to an understanding of local issues and finally to take responsible actions.

The program consists of two parts: the "Environmentality Pledge" and the "Class Project Competition". Students who took part in the pledge were required to discuss environmental challenges in their class and make a commitment to protect the environment. Those taking part in the competition were asked to identify a "real-world" environmental challenge and implement an action plan to improve the environment.

This year, a record 51,000 students from all over Hong Kong took part in the Environmentality Pledge. There were 98 class projects submitted involving 2,661 students.

The young heroes preformed extremely well during the program, presenting their environmental projects in a lively and creative way. Amongst the various outstanding prize winning projects, one learnt about organic fertilization and planting methods by planting flowers. Flowers were then sold to raise money for charity. Another participant explored ways to promote restroom cleanliness in the community while one other prize winner took a different approach and promoted the importance of environmental protection through performing arts.

The Grand Prize winner of the Upper Class category, the SKH Wing Chun Primary School, explored how schools can better utilize their resources.

By using the "Four R Principle" of reduce, re-use, recycle and replace, students carried out a series of waste reduction campaigns at their school. A journal was published to track different projects they created as well as to set a framework for further promotion in the local community.

The Grand Prize winner of the Lower Class category, Tai Po Methodist School, chose recycling as their major environmental concern with a project entitled "Wishes for Recycling Bins."

Students set out to educate Tai Po residents on how to separate different types of household waste and to place them in the appropriate bins at the recycling outlets. They also studied the current recycling situation in Hong Kong particularly the lack of landfill space and made suggestions on how waste management could be improved.

During the course of the campaign, students found that the main problem was the lack of recycling bins in housing estates, prompting them to write to the relevant government departments asking for more bins.

Attending today's Award Ceremony were the Director of Environmental Protection, Robert Law JP, and Group Managing Director of Hong Kong Disneyland, Don Robinson.
"In Hong Kong Disneyland we believe respect for the environment is an important part of everything we do and we look forward to partnering with the Environmental Protection Department in creating a better environment for Hong Kong in the years ahead," Robinson said.

"It is encouraging to see the active participation of 50,000 students in this year's program; the students have advanced a big step forward by reaching out to the community and promoting waste separation messages," Law JP said.

Each of the 10 outstanding classes was awarded a cash prize of HK$4,000, a Jiminy Cricket Environmentality Challenge class plaque and other gifts. Each Grand Prize winner from the Lower and Upper Class categories will also have the opportunity to visit the Hong Kong Disneyland site in a specially arranged boat trip. They will also be invited to participate in a special "Heroes Award Ceremony" to be held in Hong Kong Disneyland in 2006.

Named after a beloved Disney character, Jiminy Cricket is the "official" conscience of Pinocchio. Jiminy would always sit on Pinocchio's shoulders to mirror his conscience and steer him back to the right path.

In the same way, during the program Jiminy was there to remind students that they should take time to think about of the environment in whatever they do, and to keep in mind his simple motto: "Every little bit makes a big difference!"

About Hong Kong Disneyland
The Hong Kong Disneyland project was announced in 1999 as a venture between The Walt Disney Company and the Hong Kong SAR Government. With the completion of reclamation for Hong Kong Disneyland Phase I by the Hong Kong SAR Government, theme park and resort construction began in January 2003, with the project now scheduled to open on 12th September, 2005. At opening day, Hong Kong Disneyland will comprise a theme park and two hotels.

The Phase I build-out includes a projected 10 million annual visitor Disneyland-style theme park, 2,100 hotel rooms, and an area for retail, dining and entertainment. The project is estimated to create 18,000 new jobs at opening (both Disney and other employment) growing to 36,000 once the first park reaches build-out. The Hong Kong SAR Government estimated that the first phase of the project will generate a present economic value of HK$148 billion (US$19 billion) in benefits to Hong Kong over a 40-year period.