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.

FCCA is a trade association composed of 15 Member Lines: AIDA Cruises, Azamara Club Cruises, Carnival Cruise Lines, Celebrity Cruises, Costa Cruise Lines, Cunard Line, Disney Cruise Line, Holland America Line, MSC Cruises (USA) Inc., Norwegian Cruise Line, Ocean Village, P&O Cruises, Princess Cruises, and Royal Caribbean International. It was created in 1972 by the Member Lines operating more than 100 vessels in Florida, Caribbean and Latin American waters, in order to discuss and exchange views on issues relating to: legislation, tourism development, ports, safety, security and other cruise industry issues.