“Learning from the first year’s experience, everyone in the family spent the next year collecting all the waste materials they came across,” Shen said. “Now, every year our work on next year’s project begins the day after we return home from the competition. The whole family brainstorms for ideas.”
While some people may have entered the competition for the prize money — this year, the first place winner received N$100,000 — Shen said her family participates in the competition because of the positive influence the event has on them.
One of the most visible benefits — having drunken all the milk for the 132 milk cartons — is that her twin boys each grew more than 10cm over the past year, the young mother said, giggling.
“We’ve also become a much closer-knit family, spending a lot of time discussing the projects,” Shen said, adding that the children have plenty of opportunities to express their love and talent for art, and are much more aware of environmental protection since they began participating in the event.
“They know that it is not only important to be environmentally conscious in their own lives, saving energy and reusing things, but it is also important to promote the idea to other people. Environmental protection should be a value in people’s lives,” Shen said.
The family enjoys the project so much that this year they made their green dragon boat debut on the west coast in the Taichung City Green Dragon Boat competition last week.
The city took after Hualien County’s example and began hosting the competition in 2006. Shen’s family won second place.
‘FAMILY TIME’
“The first and third place winners there this year were both teams from recycling companies. We were the only family who won a prize, but we want to tell all the families in the nation that they can make environmental protection part of their family time,” she said.
The fact they have never won first place is educational to the 15-year-old twins and their 12-year-old sister, their mother said.
“They now know that sometimes even when you have made a lot of effort, you may not necessarily win or receive a proportional reward,” she said.
However, this does not mean that they would even consider giving up.
“We were very disappointed that we did not win first place, because we feel that our project is of the top-level,” she said. “But we will definitely sign up for the competition again next year ... We already have ideas for what we are going to make next.”
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