Sunwing Vacations Accepts the Ice Bucket Challenge Champagne Style

TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - August 27, 2014) - Sunwing Vacations accepted the Ice Bucket Challenge yesterday morning in their own unique champagne style. Speaking in front of their Toronto head office, where over 200 employees came into work wearing the company colour, orange, to watch their co-workers 'get iced', Group Vice President Lawrence Elliott formally accepted the challenge on the company's behalf and pledged their support to ALS Canada. He then went on to invite key representatives of the national tourist boards of the Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Mexico to do the same, adding, "I challenge Paul from the Bahamas, Eloy from Cuba, Abdalah from the Dominican Republic, Philip from Jamaica and Rodrigo from Mexico!"

He was joined by company Founder and Chairman, Colin Hunter, and Chief Operating Officer, Andrew Dawson. Also in the firing line were Brian Gocool, Director of National Sales Centre; Alvin Chau, Chief Information Officer; Ram Sud, Vice President, Payload; Jennifer Perry, Director of Product; Cristina Caponi-Davis, Vice President, Inventory/Costing/Destination Services; and Deana Murphy, Vice President, Retail Sales.

The company nominees were all served a glass of champagne by a Sunwing flight attendant before being invited to lift up individual ice buckets to complete their challenge. However, before they could do so, seven employees hiding on top of a Sunwing Airlines' maintenance van doused them with gallons of icy water from above! Chaos descended upon the group with ice flung in all directions as a spontaneous water fight broke out amongst the brave candidates.

Speaking afterwards, COO, Andrew Dawson, was keen to stress the true purpose of the campaign, which seeks to promote awareness for ALS, often called Lou Gehrig's disease, a potentially fatal illness that affects thousands of Canadians every day. He added that Sunwing Vacations would be donating $10 to ALS Canada for each time their Ice Bucket Challenge video posted at https://www.facebook.com/SunwingVacations was shared via social media using the following hashtags #icebucketchallenge #StrikeOutALS #champagneserviceONICE, with a total donation of up to a maximum of $10,000.

He went on to say that while he and his co-workers had had fun getting a soaking for an extremely worthwhile cause, he did not want to ignore the fact that for many communities around the world, the search for clean drinking water is still a daily struggle. He then pledged an additional donation to the Sunwing Travel Group's regular charity partner, OneXOne, who have founded over 60 water projects across Africa.

About the Sunwing Vacations Ice Bucket Challenge

Sunwing Vacations challenged their partners within several national tourist boards; namely Paul Strachan, Director, Canada Bahamas Tourist Board; Eloy Govea, Director of the Cuba Tourist Board; Abdalah Castillo, Director of the Dominican Republic Tourist Board; Philip Rose, Director of Tourism Jamaica Tourist Board and Rodrigo Esponda, Director of Canada Mexico Tourist Board.

About Sunwing Vacations

All Sunwing Vacations packages include award winning Sunwing Airlines' Champagne Service, which features a complimentary glass of champagne, hot towel service, Hot & Fresh Bistro meals™ served with a choice of wine at lunch and dinner, and complimentary in-flight entertainment, including first run movies and a generous 20 kg free baggage allowance. For just $40 more per flight segment, travellers can upgrade to Sunwing's Elite Plus service, which features advance seat selection, separate check-in at a majority of airports, advance boarding, 30 kg baggage allowance, priority baggage handling, and extra legroom seats.

High resolution images of the event can be downloaded at:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/rtwkmishin0i7sp/AABnIn0qHynmRTRMZ5t5CE-ja?dl=0

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Embedded Video Available: http://youtu.be/hf7i9nTa-VI?list=UUzjZ-lcuaqBQH7Sq0u3ru7A