Bengtskär, located 25 km southwest of Hanko, Finland, is the tallest lighthouse in Scandinavia. It is also a good symbol for the Lighthouse Project launched by the Lions Club of Turku / Henrik.
Photo: Anja Tapana
"Let us handle the earth with care - we did not get it from our parents. We have borrowed it from our children."
(25.3.1997 The Lion 2/97)
A number of organizations and bodies beginning from the European Union and HELCOM are concerned about the state of the Baltic Sea and are striving to improve it. This work is valuable but how to get the youth in the Baltic Sea Region interested in the sea? After all, it provides them with the possibilities to swim, windsurf, boat, fish, travel and enjoy esthetic values.
Lions clubs take up the challenge
The Lions Club Turku / Henrik has gained positive experience in raising the environmental awareness of local youth. It has arranged activities related to the River Aurajoki which runs through Turku, to shipping and the sea in general. All 44 primary schools in the area have been provided with a series of 50 slides telling about the Aurajoki River. A videotape dealing with the same subject has also been made with the help of the local art school. Two years ago, the international activities of the club were expanded and an art event with an art exhibition was organized for pupils in Turku and Tallinn.During the winter 1996 - 1997, the Lions Club Turku / Henrik invited other clubs around the Baltic Sea to join the work, and the "Lighthouse Project" was launched. The name is derived from the fact that a lighthouse directs a safe and secure path to the future. As Professor Rauno Tenovuo has said: "The most important thing in environmental protection is to understand the question of responsibility, responsibility for future generations".
Creative art events
The clubs within the project are going to arrange art events for youth. In these events, young people will consider and describe the following themes:
• coastal nature, its flora and fauna
• sea-view from my window
• sea-related professions
• lighthouse protecting the mariner
• marine hobbies
• placidness and fury of the sea
• Baltic Sea fantasies
The clubs can themselves invent additional themes. As a result, drawings, paintings, pictures, videotapes and posters are produced. These will be compiled in order to form art exhibitions, and these exhibitions will circulate around the Baltic Sea from one city to another. Later on, the clubs can start to provide each other with other material concerning the Baltic Sea (e.g., research results) to be distributed to the youth. The project is getting started, and already at the time of writing clubs from five countries have joined the project.
These actions will begin in Autumn 1997, and the first art exhibitions are planned to be held already at the beginning of 1998. All Lions Clubs in UBC´s member cities as well as elsewhere round the Baltic Sea are invited and encouraged to participate in this interesting and challenging project. The benefits shall be obvious as the environmental awareness of young people is increased. On the other hand, no expenses shall ensue apart from mailing costs.
For more information, please contact:
Mr Heikki Valmunen, Project Leader, Uudenmaankatu 9 B 44, FIN-20500 Turku, Finland
Mr Pentti Tapana, Vaskitorvenkatu 5, FIN-20880 Turku, Finland
