Corporate responsibility | 35,000 hygiene kits assembled for Clean the World

Around 400 volunteers gathered at The Venetian Macao this week to help assemble 35,000 hygiene kits as part of Las Vegas Sands’ (LVS) volunteer effort to build 100,000 hygiene kits this year for social enterprise Clean the World.

Kits assembled by Sands China and community volunteers for the ‘Las Vegas Sands 2017 Global Hygiene Kit Build’ with Clean the World will benefit Children’s International, who will deliver the 35,000 kits to families in need in the Philippines.

Each hygiene kit includes soap that is collected from Clean the World’s hospitality partners, including LVS properties around the world, and recycled through Clean the World’s soap sterilization and re-manufacturing process.

Other amenities in the kit include washcloths, toothbrushes, shampoo and a non-woven bag. An inspirational notecard with encouraging messages from the gaming operators’ team members is also included.

Mark McWhinnie, senior vice president of resort operations and development for Sands China said that there is quite an increase in the number of tables which accommodate volunteers to assemble kits this year.

“Each year it gets better. Not just from the point of view of what we do and the number of kits we build but also the diversity and representation across all departments to get involved with the exercise,” he told the Times.

“It’s not just an internal event, it’s also other people from the community who have come in and lent some time to put these kits together,” McWhinnie added.

McWhinnie also noted that the initiative is part of the ongoing efforts of the Sands ECO360° global sustainability strategy, which utilizes measures such as energy saving, resource recycling, conservation and community engagement.

“It’s part of what we do as far as sustainability is concerned, and sustainability is really part of our DNA now within the company,” he added.

Meanwhile Dina Angelucci, vice president of Housekeeping of The Venetian Macao, The Parisian Macao, and Sands Cotai Central said that it took the team four months to collect and prepare 36,000 toiletry bottles.

The bottles were then sanitized and repacked to boxes for the event.

“This is the third year, and the team loved to participate in this activity because […] if we can help save one life then it’s all worth it,” Angelucci said.

“It was quite a big educational process over the last couple of years to make sure the team understands why we’re doing it,” she added.

The effort is one of a series of hygiene kit building events which are held across LVS properties around the world between August and October.

This is the fourth consecutive year LVS has unitized its properties to build hygiene kits for Clean the World, and the 2017 build events will bring the total number of hygiene kits created with LVS to 500,000.

This year, LVS funding for the kits builds will also provide support for the Clean the World Foundation to fulfill its mission of propelling the global hygiene revolution.

For each kit the company assembles, USD1 will go to the foundation. USD100,000 of funding will be generated in total from its global kit builds and given to the foundation to assist them in their efforts.