As part of “A Thousand Days on the Adriatic Sea”, this season Valamar Riviera will enable approximately 1,400 free overnight stays for over 350 children and their adult supervisors from 17 different institutions and associations in one of Valamar’s hotels, apartment complexes or campsites from Istria and the Island of Krk to Dubrovnik. During the selection process, 17 applications were received, and summer vacations free of charge were approved for all participants. These are children without suitable parental care, children from low-income families, special-needs children and children with specific health problems whose treatment and recovery benefit from their stay at the seaside. Children who had never spent the summer on the sea were given preferential treatment during the allocation of donations in 2015.

LIST OF SELECTED PARTICIPANTS IN THE FREE SUMMER VACATION PROGRAM:

• SOS-Children’s Village Association of Croatia, Zagreb
• Association for Assistance to Intellectually Disabled Persons, Bjelovar
• Association for Assistance to Intellectually Disabled Persons, Slavonski Brod
• Education and Learning Centre, Velika Gorica
• Paks Environmental Research Society, Kašina
• Nada Association of Foster Parents and Foster Homes, Ivanec
• Kolibrići Association of Parents of Life-Threatened Children, Zagreb
• Women of the Kosovo Valley Association, Knin
• Disabled Persons Association of the Town of Opatija, Opatija
• Uspon Association for Professional Assistance and Support to Special Needs Persons and Their Family Members, Zagreb
• Mali Zmaj Society for the Improvement of the Quality of Life of Impoverished and Unprovided Children, Zagreb
• Mate Lovrak Primary School, Petrinja
• Malteser Croatia Association, Zagreb
• Sanus Club of Parents of Children Suffering and Recovering from Malignant Disorders, Split
• Centre for Missing and Abused Children, Osijek
• Sisak Diocese Caritas – St. Vincent de Paul House, Oborovo-Sisak
• Vukovar Europe House – EDVU, Vukovar

As a part of “We Love the Adriatic Sea”, Valamar Riviera will grant a total of HRK 105,000 for projects aimed at protecting the Adriatic coastline and sea, taking into consideration the importance of projects aimed at preservation of the marine environment to the wider community, raising public awareness of the importance of protecting the marine environment, previous results in these efforts and the long-term positive impact on the protection of the Adriatic coastline and sea. Out of the applications received, the following projects were proclaimed the best:

1. “Adriatic Debris Hotspots” – Adriatic Marine Institute from Zagreb.

2. “New Technologies for Researching Marine Mammals in the Adriatic – Use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles” – Blue Planet Institute for Research and Protection of the Sea, Vis Branch.

3. “Let Blue Stay Blue – A Short Documentary on the Problems of Waste in the Sea” – Sunce Association for Nature, the Environment and Sustainable Development from Split.

4. “Clean Our Natural Beaches on Silba” – Society for the Protection of the Natural and Cultural Heritage of the Island of Silba, from Silba.

“Both donation programs represent Valamar when we speak of the way we view our responsibility to society and the community, and I am very pleased to be able to congratulate the awarded environmental projects and also extend a warm welcome to Valamar to all groups of children who applied for this year’s donations. Valamar wants the corporate social responsibility to describe our daily business. We build relations that rest on mutual respect for our surroundings: guests, employees, partners, the community, the environment and investors. This is why we encourage and actively participate in numerous projects that contribute to systematic protection of natural resources and care for the community in which we operate,” stressed Ivana Budin Arhanić, a member of Valamar Riviera’s Management Board.