Malta Tourism Authority sponsor of AVENUE Magazine’s Altruism Awards presented at Life Below Gala

Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) partnered with AVENUE Magazine to support the first AVENUE Altruism Awards at AVENUE’s Life Below Water Gala, in association with the UN Office of Partnerships. The event was a benefit for Mission Blue, an organization dedicated to exploring and protecting the ocean. The Gala event honored Mission Blue’s founder, Dr. Sylvia Earle, who is a world-renowned oceanographer, explorer, author and lecturer. AVENUE Altruism Awards event took place on Monday, November 13, 2017, at the United Nations, New York City.

Michelle Buttigieg, Malta Tourism Authority Representative in the US, noted “it is a particularly proud and meaningful event for Malta because it was actually a Maltese, Arvid Pardo, Malta’s first Permanent Representative to the United Nations from 1964 to 1971, who was known as the “Father of the Law of the Sea Conference”. On November 1, 1967, Prof. Pardo addressed the UN General Assembly calling for international regulations to ensure peace at sea, to prevent further pollution and to protect ocean resources.”

Law of the Sea and protecting the ocean is of prime importance to Malta, an archipelago in the Mediterranean. In fact, Malta recently hosted the European Union’s fourth high-level Our Ocean conference in Malta, Oct 5-6, 2017 which was also attended by Dr. Sylvia Earles.

Ms. Buttigieg congratulated AVENUE magazine on the Life Below Water initiative which is helping to bring prominence to Dr. Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue Alliance.

Randi Schatz, President and Publisher of AVENUE Magazine said, “AVENUE is delighted to inaugurate the First AVENUE Altruism Awards with our Life Below Water Gala honoring Dr. Sylvia Earle and benefiting Mission Blue. Protecting our oceans and marine life is an important cause and we wanted to shine a light on it and the incredible work of both Dr Earle and the nonprofit which she founded. We would like to thank the Malta Tourism Authority for its support of the AVENUE Altruism Awards. We look forward to collaborating with the UN Partnership Development team in future years and supporting their Sustainable Goals with our awards program.”