August 15 – Launch Day
The Box Appeal officially launched on August 15. This year was the first year we took the Box Appeal outside of the UAE.
One of the biggest challenges was making sure local printers stuck to our guidelines and the boxes looked the same so the campaign was consistent, but at the same time slightly adapting the concept to each market so it was helping those who needed it most in that country.
The launch in Muscat went well, the local community there got involved straight away with 100s of boxes being picked up by schools and other local community groups. In both Oman and Bahrain this year we had pick-up points installed in supermarkets. This went well and is something we would look at implementing in the UAE too.
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At the end of the first two weeks of The Box Appeal, we have about half the boxes distributed. Post Eid we experience a huge increase in requests for boxes. During the last week of the appeal we run out of boxes and had to ask people to bring the items in in any box they could find.
Over the next 15 days the hotel teams work hard. They go into schools and educate children about The Box Appeal, getting them involved filling boxes. The children add their own touches to the boxes, such as a picture. The schools become the largest donators of boxes throughout the campaign.
We receive so many requests for boxes we extend the deadline for people to return boxes until September 30 — at the time of writing we had an estimated 9,912 boxes returned.
Due to the amount of boxes, there will be several distribution days at labour camps between September 25 and October 2. Overall, it’s a fantastic achievement and a record amount of boxes for The Box Appeal. Already, the teams are planning how we can make the 2012 Box Appeal bigger and better than ever.
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