Las Vegas Sands and Clean the World Partner for Disaster Preparedness Event

Through Sands Cares, our global corporate giving program, we are committed to giving back to the communities in which we live and do business. We rely on our Team Members and their individual, personal drives to help out, but we also foster key partnerships with community stakeholders to ensure our efforts have as much impact as possible.

Two of those partner organizations are Clean the World Foundation and the American Red Cross. Each year, Sands Cares and Clean the World host a global, all-volunteer event to help build disaster relief kits for community members in need. In 2019, we brought the American Red Cross on board in Las Vegas and turned the event into a combination kit build and blood drive.

“Clean the World is prepared and committed to respond to emergencies whenever we are needed,” says Shawn Seipler, CEO of Clean the World. “Oftentimes, emergencies displace families, leaving them without access to the basic needs that many of us take for granted. In every region of the world, there are people without access to hygiene supplies that are essential to living healthy lives.”

We kicked off the global effort at Marina Bay Sands on Tuesday, July 30, where 25,000 hygiene kits were built and packed, then delivered to Children’s International in the Philippines. Led by our sustainability and corporate social responsibility teams, the event mobilized hundreds of Team Members not only to work on the kits, but to decorate message cards accompanying each one, and ensuring proper sorting of materials. The event was organized into two tracks: the “competitive track,” where teams competed to see who could pack 250 kits in the shortest amount of time, and the “fun track,” designed for Team Members to work at a more relaxed pace, and catering to those who were volunteering around their work shifts.

In Las Vegas, nearly 1,000 volunteers came together to pack 35,000 disaster readiness kits, which were presented to area nonprofit organizations like Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth, The Shade Tree Las Vegas, Veterans’ Village and more

Both events also included blood drives. Between the two properties, nearly 200 units of blood were collected, with 92 donors giving for the very first time. Samikkannu Ayyakkanu, WSH & Safety Management Senior Executive at Marina Bay Sands, was one of those donors in Singapore: “This is a great collaboration with Singapore Red Cross, and they made it very convenient for Team Members. I’m sure there are others like me who have wanted to donate but could not find the right time. It makes me so happy to know I could be saving a life through this small act.”

The annual, worldwide event concluded in Macao on Friday, December 13, when an estimated 350 Team Members and their family, friends and loved ones came together to pack 40,000 more hygiene kits consisting of soap, toothpaste, and other essential items.

“We are so thankful for partners like Las Vegas Sands for helping those in need and supporting our mission,” Seipler says.” This is an amazing opportunity to serve families and children around the world.”