Year of Our Island has geared up for the summer holidays with a new ‘summer passport’ for children.
The initiative is aimed at those aged from 4 – 11 and encourages children to explore more of our Island and its attractions throughout the rest of the summer holidays. Based around the key themes of Year of Our Island, the passport allows school children and their parents to discover something new in 2018 all whilst being in with a chance to win a Year of Our Island themed prize.
The approach is simple: complete the activities in the passport over the summer holidays and return it to the Welcome Centre.
Year of Our Island political board chair Chris Thomas MHK, Minister for Policy and Reform, shared his excitement about the idea.
'We have had an amazing summer so far and our passport can help all children make the most of the great weather, sitting alongside other important initiatives during the school holidays. Many of the stamps can only be found outdoors, so we are definitely hoping for more sunshine over the next few months!'
Passport stamps can be obtained at Manx National Heritage sites, national glens, heritage railway stations and, of course, the Year of Our Island Trails.
There will also be an opportunity for children and parents to share some of their favourite things about the Isle of Man in the ‘share more’ section of the booklet.
Speaking about the passport Year of Our Island project manager Anna Goldsmith said:
'We don’t want the passports to be prescriptive. Year of Our Island is very much about giving people on the Isle of Man the opportunity to share their stories, whatever their age. So we are asking children (and adults too if they want to get involved) to tell us all about their favourite places and create a scrapbook which they can look back on in future.'
The Year of Our Island summer passport is available for digital download and physical copies can be found in the Welcome Centre at the Sea Terminal and in libraries around the Island.
