Over 1,000 students of the Island of Rhodes attended our educational seminars from April 24 to April 26, when All For Blue’s sixth planned visit to the island was completed.
In our last mission, our team visited four (4) schools: the 2nd Primary School of Ialyssos, the High School of Ialyssos, the “Kallipateira” High School of Ialyssos, and the 16th Primary School of Rhodes, and held the educational seminar in their beautifully designed premises.
The coastal cleanup took place on the city’s beach, Ialyssos Beach, with the participation of students from the High School and Secondary School of Ialyssos and volunteer divers from our team. The underwater cleanup was coordinated by the organization’s founder, Katerina Topouzoglou.
Awe-inspiring is the fact that the students managed to collect 178 kg of waste just from the coastal cleanup of the beach in 60 minutes! This time, too, strange objects such as a float, a pair of shoes, a bird cage, and pieces of broken sunbeds were found on the shore while our divers removed pieces of furniture and a coffee table from the seabed.
Finally, once again, the students surprised us with their knowledge and questions during the seminars, and we believe we have found the future heroes of the sea. They wondered what professional orientation they could follow so that they, too, could contribute to the protection of the marine ecosystem in practice. They also showed a strong interest in volunteering so that they could clean the shores of their island together with their families and friends on their own initiative.
We sincerely thank the schools and teachers for their hospitality, their participation in the program, and their fervent and moving words about All For Blue’s work. We also thank our local volunteers, who once again supported the program with their presence. In addition, we would like to thank the Deputy Minister of Tourism, Ms. Elena Rapti, for her support. We would like to highlight that the TUI Junior Academy by All For Blue program has been placed under the auspices of the Ministry of Tourism.
All For Blue and the TUI Care Foundation will provide more than 17,000 students in Rhodes with educational seminars on ocean conservation, which will be accompanied by coastal and underwater clean-up actions from 2023 to 2026. TUI Junior Academy by All For Blue is also under the Auspices of World Underwater Federation CMAS and our educational seminars are implemented with the approval of the Hellenic Ministry of Education, Religious Affairs and Sports (Protocol No. Φ1Α/38342/ΠΠ/42434/Δ7).
The closing of the first year of the TUI Junior Academy by All For Blue in Rhodes will officially take place in June with the implementation of the exhibition of the circular economy artworks of all the schools that participated in the program this year, which we are looking forward to!
