Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA)

Pembroke Pines, FL (August 21, 2008) - The Florida-Caribbean Cruise Association (FCCA) has announced the winners of the 2008 FCCA Children’s Essay Competition. Students for this year’s competition were invited to write an essay on the prompt, “What steps can we take as a destination to make cruise passengers feel more welcome while in port?”

As you can imagine, it was very difficult to choose the overall winner in each age category, as all the essays proved the excellence in education and displayed the students’ overall knowledge and awareness in their tourism industry. The similar skills shown in many of the essays led to selecting both two and three way ties for the first time in competition history.

First-, second- and third-place winners were chosen from the Junior and Senior Divisions. The 2008 winners are:

First Place: In the Junior Division was Joel Anderson Jones from Trinidad & Tobago, and in the Senior Division, Garrett Fairclough from Jamaica. The first-place winners will receive academic scholarships of $3,000 (U.S.) each, in addition to a separate monetary award, which will be given to their schools. The winners will also be invited to the FCCA Caribbean Cruise Conference & Trade Show in Trinidad & Tobago on Tuesday, October 28th, 2008, with their chaperon, where the winners will read their essays and accept their prizes.

Second Place: In the Junior Division was Ashley Miller from British Virgin Island and Storm Halbich from St. Vincent & The Grenadines, and in the Senior Division, Taruna Seebaransingh from Trinidad & Tobago. Second place winners will receive monetary awards of $1,500.

Third Place: In the Junior Division was Terrikia Benjamin from Antigua, Princess Joyel London from Dominica and Kerese Elliott from Nevis, and in the Senior Division, Katie Fleming from Cayman Islands. Third place winners will receive monetary awards of $1,000.

This year’s essay contest attracted entries from 15 nations. The aim of the contest is to assist students in furthering their education. To reward all the students for their great efforts, all other finalists will receive a monetary award of $200.

Created in 1972, the FCCA is a not-for-profit trade organization that provides a forum for discussion on tourism development, ports, safety, security, and other cruise industry issues and builds bilateral relationships with destinations’ private and public sectors. By fostering an understanding of the cruise industry and its operating practices, the FCCA works with governments, ports and private sector representatives to maximize cruise passenger, crew and cruise line spending, as well as enhance the destination experience and increase the amount of cruise passengers returning as stay-over visitors. For more information, visit F-CCA.com and @FCCAupdates on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.