The first awards of the European Student Volunteer Network of YouSmile became reality given to students who give the best example to other children and adults! #YouSmileAwards
22 June 2017
The ceremony was held with the participation of students from different parts of the country, their teachers and parents, full of smiles and applauses at Hard Rock Café in Athens on Thursday 22 June 2017.
The presenter of the event was Dimitrios Ouggarezos.
The purpose of the awards was to showcase the actions and initiatives of students which have a positive impact to society and inspire other children or adults.
The idea of awarding students who participate to the actions of the European Student Volunteer Network of YouSmile was to turn the attention of the general public to the views of children and showcase the positive aspects of society through the community of students.
YouSmile network is organized by the Organization “The Smile of the Child” and for the realization of this idea the volunteers-students of YouSmile turned to school counselors across Greece to ensure a wide participation.
At the same time, they carried out on online research about important actions of children worth to promote. The result of this call was 1.800 applications from 51 schools!
The final 8 winners were selected by a vote from the volunteers-students of YouSmile without any intervention from adults. However, all participants received honorary distinctions for their actions.
The event was honored by the presence of the Olympic Champion Leuteris Petrounias, the Director-General of Microsoft Hellas Mrs. Peggy Antonakou, the artist/singer Aris Makris, the presenter Giorgos Mauridis, as well as the Director-General of VISA Mr. Kampanopoulos and the CSR Manager of Stoiximan Mrs. Kozantinou.
The President of the Organization “The Smile of the Child” Mr. Costas Yannopoulos greeted the event reminding to all participants that the 10-year-old founder of “The Smile of the Child” was the child that inspired other children to become volunteers and dedicate their personal time to actions for the smile of every child! He underscored:
“It is with great pleasure to be present today to this event full of children, parents and teachers who contributed to institutionalizing the YouSmile awards in Greece, but also beyond Greece. Children have a voice and we owe to listen to them and encourage them to follow their dreams without us intervening in their innocent souls with our own problems”.
The award ceremony took place in a very warm atmosphere full of smiles and applauses with main message:
“Children can change this world!”
The award categories, the awardees and the awarded follow:
Category: Adult who inspired children
Awardees: YouSmilers
Winner: Mr. Anargyros Drivas, 3rd High School of Nafpaktos
Mr. Drivas is a teacher of Physics and member of the Amateur Association of Astronomy in Patras. In the past year every Sunday he was teaching kids Astronomy. Children not only loved Astronomy, but also managed to win the 2nd Award in the 22nd National Student Contest in Astronomy.
Category: Sports
Awardee: Leuteris Petrounias
Winner: 17-year-old Emmanouil Karalis from Athens
Emmanouil Karalis is 17 years-old and an athlete in pole vaulting. He has a record of 5,55 m in the outdoor pole vaulting and 5,70m in the indoor pole vaulting, one of the best records of all times on the European and world levels in the category of athletes under 18. For Emmanouil this is only the beginning of a great career.
Category: Technology - Science
Awardee: General-Director of Microsoft Hellas Mrs. Peggy Antonakou
Winner: SmartRobots team from the 3rd Elementary School of Pefki, Athens
SmartRobots is a 6-member team awarded at the National Robotics Contest for the creation of a “Smart Bus without a driver” thanks to the guidance of their coach Mr. Gezerlis. It is worth to mention that Mrs. Antonakou had a surprise for children offering them as present an Xbox to each of them!
Category: Arts
Awardee: singer/artist Aris Makris
Winner: 14-year-old Evgenia Dermitzoglou from Giannitsa
Evgenia is 14-years-old and received a distinction to a global contest for one of her paintings dedicated to the concept of Peace. Her work has now become a postal card from Postcards for peace.
Category: Environment
Awardee George Mauridis
Winner: 5th High School of Serres
A team of 8 students worked for the 3 months participating to the “ECOMOBILITY–ECOLOGIAL TRANSPOPORT” campaign. Following a study participants suggested solutions to the competent authorities of their city. Through actions in the city and the help of local media kids managed to raise awareness among their fellow citizens.
Category: Rights
Awardees: Lampros Konstantaras and Fanis Lampropoulos
Winner: 15-year-old Konstantinos Papachristou from Thessaloniki
Konstantinos is the creator of teens4greece.com, the 1st Think Tank of teenagers in Greece. Konstantinos invites his peers to “take up their shared responsibility” and to come up with “fresh and innovative ideas” to find solutions for a better country and future.
Category: A School that helps children
Awardee: Mrs. Maria Petropoulou from the Volunteers Department of the organization “The Smile of the Child”
Winner: Chiliomodiou High School of Corinth
Students support theirs peers in need of assistance, as well as any other citizen in their region who is in serious need. A social support center operates in their school, while a wheelchair has been offered to a parent of one of their peers. In addition, a fund has been created to cover the expenses of students in material need for the purposes of ensuring the necessary school items, their participation to outdoor school activities, the organization of birthday parties. Students also created teams who offer a reading to children, the elderly and persons with disabilities.
Category: Children help other children
Awardee: The President of the Organization “The Smile of the Child” Mr. Costas Yannopoulos
Winners: 15-year-old Maria-Eleni Sklirou and 15-year-old Sofia Triantafyllides from the High School of Euinochoriou in Aitolokarnania
Maria and Sofia support one of their peers who face adaptation and communication problems. Girls are standing by a student who had problems in getting adapted to the school environment and communicating with other students. The girls never spoke about their support. It was revealed from their peer and other students.
The President of the Organization “The Smile of the Child” announced the institutionalization of the award as ANDREAS YANNOPOULOS Award in honor of the little founder of the organization whose only concern was the Smile of every child!
We would like to thank HARD ROCK CAFÉ and the employees for hosting the event.
We would like to warmly thank the sponsors of the event:
SOUNDSTRACK company for the audio system
ELLINAIR company for the transport
NEXT company for the printings
TOKOTOUKAN company for the T-shirts
PLETSAS company for the printings
DELIVERAS company for the catering
More photo material can be found here:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0BywNIuF7kxrKd3BpSmFJWnRXdXc
For more information:
“The Smile of the Child” press@hamogelo.gr , +30 210-3306140
