It started with the suggestion that we ask each W Talent to donate One Dollar from their pay as our donation to Starwood’s Haiti Fund program. Lirar thought not. So, he quickly organized and chaired a meeting with representatives from various departments to brainstorm fun, participative, teambuilding fund-raising ideas for the cause. The meeting triggered the rise of various Clubs throughout our W Community – Little Billionaires, Unique City, Touch Club, Big Brothers – all motivated to create unique charity events.
Inspired by the leadership of Lirar and Naadhu, the creative geniuses behind W-inner.com, W Talents kicked off a “Care for Haiti” fundraising event on 4 February, 2010 that instantly caught local media attention. TV Maldives conducted a live interview with our Complex General Manager, David Martens, and then from the rooftop, the film crew documented the Talents gathering in W formation. Tee Shirts were designed and sold and fresh kurumba (coconuts) were brought in from a neighboring island and sold to Talents. A football that was autographed by fellow team members was auctioned off and the winning Talent bought it for 450 Euros! The event was publicized on local television, local print and online newspapers.
What followed was an extraordinary example of creative, enthusiastic initiatives “bubbling up” from W Talents: a series of football & volleyball matches, a garage sale, concert, a funky “CafĂ© Haiti” – selling snacks and tea, “Haircuts for Haiti” nights, “Hotdogs for Haiti” and much more — all for the benefit of the victims of the Haiti earthquakes.
W Talents saw this as ‘payback time’ in our Global Community. The world had seen the Maldives devastated by the 2004 Tsunamis and Maldivians received help from around the world. Now it was our chance to offer care and support to victims of the horrific earthquakes in Haiti.
Their message quickly spread to Sheraton-Maldives. The Haircuts for Haiti poster was emailed to Sheraton with the message “Look what W is doing” inspiring Sheraton to launch a Fund Raising Carnival for Haiti, which resulted in over $4000 for the charity.
By the end of the month, the influence of these 2 W-inner founders was felt around the world. Our Starwood properties located on 2 tiny islands in the middle of the deep blue sea had caught the attention of CNN. Our combined contribution from both Starwood-Maldives properties was a donation of over $20,000 (including the match from Starwood Corporate.) — quite a difference from the $230 that One Dollar per W Talent would have produced
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