Ecotourism Training Center (ETC) in Khao Lak, Thailand to hold December 25 Tsunami Remembrance Beach Bonfire Ceremony

Seventeen young Thai people from Tsunami affected communities along southern Thailand's Andaman coast will mark 2005 as the most extreme year of their lives.

At sunset on 25 December, the youths - who are all Tsunami survivors and now students of a high-profile Khao Lak tourism training center - will commemorate this past year with a beach bonfire ceremony prior to official Boxing Day memorials. Using timber collected and sorted from mountains of debris during local coastal clean ups, the bonfire will be a symbol of renewal for the people of Khao Lak to remember the past and celebrate new futures.

The massive Tsunami that hit several nations bordering the Indian Ocean on 26 December, 2004, devastated the Khao Lak region of Phang Nga province. Tonnes of debris washed into the sea from surrounding resort and fishing communities and a huge effort was required to clear the rubble from the shoreline and under the sea.

The Ecotourism Training Center (ETC), in operation since July 2005, partnered with resorts in the community to conduct beach clean-up projects in a bid to restore the former beauty of the region and provide a safe and enjoyable environment for tourists and visitors who are now beginning to return to Khao Lak.

"The students learned to be aware of their natural surroundings and to take care of those surroundings by participating in projects such as these where they can demonstrate their commitment to responsible environmental stewardship," said ETC Managing Director Reid Ridgway.

The ETC students - in association with La Flora Resort, which recently re-opened after post-Tsunami rebuilding efforts - will hold the symbolic evening bonfire ceremony to share their struggle with loss, their feelings of hope, and their brilliant strides of restoration, learning to protect the environment and helping their community recover. It is a parting with the past and a wish for a happy future for all. The event also celebrates the many months of hard work that the Khao Lak community has expended in preparation for the return to a healthy and vibrant post-Tsunami state.

"The Khao Lak community commends ETC for the spirit and leadership in this and many other projects where stewardship of the environment is demonstrated by example," said La Flora Resort CEO Chaiyoot Trongkamoltum.

The region's painful lesson of respect for the power of nature will be in many memories forever, but the ETC students have turned their lives around by embarking on a unique educational program that will see them graduate as trained tourism professionals and ambassadors for their region and country.

The ETC building will open its doors prior to the bonfire ceremony for refreshments and to field inquiries about the program and its goals and aims.

The Tsunami Remembrance Beach Bonfire Ceremony, which is open to all, will be held at 5pm – 25 December 2005- on Khuk Khak beach, Khao Lak (behind La Flora Resort).

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