BERNE – Two Caribbean teens’ letters pleading to save the world’s forests – written as imaginary trees – beat two million other contestants in 60 nations worldwide to win gold and silver medals in a letter-writing competition, the Universal Postal Union announced today.
Barbadian Charlée Gittens, writing a “powerful plea” as “Woody Branche”, a great oak in Guyana’s Windsor Forest, joined a 13-year-old from China to win the two gold medals in the 40th edition of the UPU’s competition which is intended to keep the art of letter-writing alive.
Grenada’s Jonathan Andrew, 14, won the silver medal for a “well handled and educational” presentation of the benefits of forests, the UPU said.
The jury also awarded a special mention to a composition from Trinidad and Tobago, the UPU said.
“Despite living in an increasingly digital age, the more than two million often hand-written letters the competition generates worldwide annually shows the tremendous value of the written word,” UPU director general Edouard Dayan said in a release.
Created in 1874 and based in the Swiss capital, the UPU, the world’s second oldest intergovernmental organisation, coordinates global postal policies. Part of the United Nations system, the UPU administers the worldwide postal system.
This year, the contest observed the International Year of Forests by asking young people to imagine themselves as a tree writing a letter to explain the importance of protecting forests. (CMC)
