SINGAPORE, 29th December 2012
One hundred talented young finalists of the ‘Celebrate the Sea’ children’s art competition gathered excitedly on the waterfront outside the SEA Aquarium in Resorts World Sentosa (RWS), Singapore. They had come, all buzzing with creative energy, to make their personal masterpieces on the theme of ‘One ocean’. With just three hours to complete their pictures, the short time frame and their tender years were clearly no obstacle to these young artists.
The children hunched over tables, faces flushed with concentration; working feverishly on their art and totally unaffected by the heat and humidity which was making the adults wilt. The range of their personal choices of medium was impressive, from crayon to watercolour to colouring pencils – with some using a combination of all three! The creative use of imagery and techniques in producing their work was so sophisticated it seemed they were beyond their years. All seven judges were astonished at the creativity and extremely high quality of the artwork produced.
This annual international children’s art competition, now in its 11th year, is held in conjunction with the Celebrate the Sea festival. This year there were over 3,000 entries in the preliminary round, with submissions coming from as far apart as Australia, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Hong Kong, India and even Bulgaria.
Due to obvious synergies, Ocean Geographic decided to combine this year’s competition with the powerful 1,000 Kids ONE Message event. Last year ‘1,000 Kids ONE Message’ was held for the first time in Hong Kong - 1,000 children gathered together in the heart of the shark fin consumer world to make a crucial pledge, “I am the future, I will not eat shark fins.” This year, it was decided that it would be held in Singapore and Marine Life Park, RWS was generous to host this event.
The Marine Life Park’s education team actively contributed to the day’s program by presenting an interactive, educational performance for the competitors, drawing squeals of excitement, laughter, ‘oohs’ and ‘ahhs’ from the children as live specimens (ranging from starfish to horseshoe crabs) were brought out for a visit.Mr Howard Shaw and Miss Jessica Tan (Miss Singapore/Universe 2007) also took to the stage to share their wonderful experiences of diving with sharks.
The children were given an opportunity to win prizes in a short quiz segment on sharks; a few were stumped for answers and were a little daunted by the audience! But no-one walked away empty-handed, since kind and helpful volunteers whispered answers into their ears so all were able to give the correct answers in the end and the audience learnt more about sharks into the bargain
After the results of the art competition were announced and the prizes collected by the very talented winners, the day ended with the finale – the taking of the pledge. Led by Miss Jessica Tan and Miss Debra Teng (local celebrity and actress), the children, together with supportive parents, gathered by the waterfront in the blazing sun to take the "I am the future, I will not eat shark fins" pledge in both English and Mandarin. 1,000 kids ONE message - we may have had 500 children not 1,000 this time, but whatever we lacked in numbers, these diners of the future made up for in heart.
Apart from the main messages of the day, if you could have seen how the children painted, how the judges struggled to differentiate between such incredible submissions and how quickly the kids absorbed facts during the interactive performance and quiz you would never again underestimate just how creative, artistic, intelligent, well read and outspoken our children are, and how much heart they have.
Children are our hope for healthier oceans (and as adults, we should lead them by example). This is a definitive campaign for children to both educate and inspire Singaporeans, communities all over Asia and the world beyond to protect these sentinel animals from extinction.
Background:
Over 73 million sharks are culled each year for the shark fin trade and other shark-related products. This is unsustainable. Some sharks are already regionally extinct in the waters of South East Asia. Without them, the ocean will eventually collapse. Singapore is one of the biggest consumers of shark fins in Asia. As the regional centre for the shark fin trade, this project accentuates the solidarity of Singapore children, adults, and non-government organisations in one message, “I am the future, I will not eat shark fins”.
