The Thai students of Ecotourism Training Center (ETC), Khao Lak, Thailand invites all Media and public to a December 25 Tsunami Remembrance Bonfire Ceremony

Seventeen young Thai people from tsunami affected communities along southern Thailand’s Andaman coast will mark 2005 as the luckiest year of their lives. On 25 December, the students of Khao Lak’s Ecotourism Training Center (ETC) – all tsunami survivors- will remember this past year with a bonfire ceremony, with timber collected from local environmental beach clean ups, to remember the past and celebrate new achievements.

The ETC students - in partnership with La Flora Resort, Khao Lak – will hold the symbolic evening bonfire ceremony to share their struggle with loss, their feelings of hope, and their brilliant strides of restoration, learning to protect the environment and helping their community recover. It is a parting with the past and a wish for a happy future for all. The event also will celebrate the many months of hard work that the Khao Lak community has expended in preparation for the return to a healthy and vibrant post-tsunami state.

The region’s painful and powerful lesson in respect for nature’s power will be with us forever, but the ETC students have turned their lives around by embarking on a unique educational program that will see them graduate as trained tourism professionals and ambassadors for their region and country.

The ETC building will open its doors prior to the bonfire ceremony for refreshments and to field inquiries about the program and its goals and aims. There will also be an official press announcement of support for our program by the French Red Cross.

All Media are welcome to attend our bonfire event and open house.

The Bonfire event will be held at 5pm on Khuk Khak beach, Khao Lak (behind La Flora Resort.

The Ecotourism Training Center, located in Khuk Khak, Phang Nga, Thailand, is a long-term tsunami recovery project providing immediate employment and vocational career training to young Thai adults in tsunami-affected communities. ETC’s clean up activities are sponsored in part by Project Aware.

For more information see: www.etcth.org

CONTACT:

Reid Ridgway

Managing Director

Ecotourism Training Center

Mobile: 66 (0) 7263 6016

Office: 076-420-258

Fax: 076-420-362

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.etcth.org

Edited December 20, 200520 yr by khall64au

The Thai ETC students at their tsunami commemorative bonfire on Bang Nieng Beach, Khao Lak - held on Christmas Day at sunset.

The ceremony was witnessed by a Reuters photographer. Take a look at Yahoo News.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/051225/photos_ts/

2005_12_25t084727_450x290_us_tsunami_thailand_sunday

(need to copy & paste the whole URL address)

Edited December 26, 200520 yr by khall64au

Good to see you Miss Hall!