AIRPORTS & CHARITIES
Singapore Changi’s charity events include an annual fun run and movie premieres.
A branch of the international Kiwanis Club based at New York’s
LaGuardia Airport also focuses on children. The club’s ties with the airport date back to 1940, when meetings were held in the Kittyhawk Bar, part of the original Terrace Restaurant. Nowadays, the club hosts a Kids Day every September, when children from
the local community are invited to the airport for an afternoon of fun and games. Other projects organised by LGA Kiwanis include arranging scholarships
for aviation graduates to the Vaughn College of Aeronautics, sending underprivileged children to summer camp and distributing turkeys at Christmas to the needy, via church groups and soup kitchens. Among the more unusual projects is one launched last year at George
Best Belfast City Airport – a community fund into which self-imposed ‘fi nes’ are donated to charity or ploughed back into the local community. The fi nes apply whenever a fl ight runs behind schedule, and range from
€60 to €710 depending on how late it is. In many cases, airports may look to their local environment fi rst when it
comes to helping others - underlining, perhaps, the old adage that charity begins at home. But it certainly doesn’t end there, as poor and depressed communities
around the world will willingly testify. A diverse portfolio of aid, ranging from life-saving medicines to fl ood and famine relief, reaches these people from all corners of the globe. Take the One Water PlayPump project launched at Heathrow’s Terminal 5,
which funds clean drinking water in developing countries. Former Olympic sprinter Linford Christie opened the One Water PlayPump exhibit, a six-metre high replica pump on the departures concourse. The aim is to promote One Water, an ‘ethical water brand’ that donates all
its profi ts towards installating PlayPump water systems in Asia, Africa and other developing countries. One Water has installed well over 300 PlayPumps, benefi ting the lives of
more than 640,000 people; a new PlayPump is plumbed in somewhere round the round the world every three to four days. T5 passengers can donate via text message or by giving to One Water
representatives at the airport. One Water has been sold through Heathrow’s duty-free shops since 2006, selling over two million bottles of water and funding 32 PlayPumps. Not surprisingly, perhaps, airports invariably redouble their fundraising
efforts at Christmas. Auckland Airport is donating NZ$120,000 to charity this year in the form of 12 separate NZ$10,000 donations to deserving causes.
62 AIRPORT WORLD/FEBRUARY-MARCH 2011 Passengers’ unwanted foreign currency can be dropped into ‘donation
globes’ situated throughout the airport to swell the coffers of New Zealand-based charities. Staying down under, Sydney Airport also contributes to many local
charities including the Wesley Mission, Royal Australian Flying Doctors and local rotary clubs, but its primary focus is Youth Off The Streets, which aims to provide a home-like environment for homeless adolescents and help them get their lives back on track. Airport management and staff also support The Sydney Children’s
Hospital by participating in monthly ‘dress down’ days and an annual Jeans for Genes Day charity appeal. Sydney’s wider community investment programme encompasses
schools and youth sport; sponsoring the Newtown Junior Jets rugby team, for example, represents an annual contribution of around A$15,000 a year. It has also put A$50,000 of funding into the Sydney Airport Whale
Watching viewing platform at Cape Solander in Botany Bay National Park. The funding is part of Sydney Airport’s community grants programme, set up to assist worthwhile environmental and community initiatives around the airport precinct. Finally, take a bow Andy Barclay, airfi eld operations manager based in
Glasgow. He recently boosted the coffers of the South Ayrshire Autistic Society when he topped the bidding in a charity auction at Prestwick – to win a shed, which the airport no longer needed. Prestwick’s offi ce manager, Carol-Anne Elliott, says: “Everyone’s a
winner. We have freed up some space at the airport, the charity has had a cash boost, and Andy is the proud possessor of a fi ne shed.” The auctioneer’s hammer fi nally came down at €356. Not exactly a
massive amount, perhaps, but for charities worldwide every penny really does count.
AW
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