Party animals make waves to save the sea
Most people don't look for an excuse to party the night away on a Friday, but Kris Sawatzky has found a worthy cause nevertheless.
The founder of Party with A Purpose hosted the organisation's second annual ocean awareness fund-raiser, Oceans '12, on Friday at Volar, featuring DJ Antwone - aka model Anthony Sandstrom - and wife Jocelyn Luko.
'Moving to Hong Kong and travelling around Southeast Asia really brought the issues to the forefront,' Sawatzky, a keen free-diver, said. 'Years of trawling, reclamation and pollution have done excessive damage [to the oceans], yet it often seems to get very little attention.'
Sawatzky reckoned the best way to get people's attention on a Friday night was to throw a party. So last year he founded Party with A Purpose.
'I figured it was time to bring awareness to the issues in a different way and, as a techno-house DJ/producer, a nightlife party seemed like a good start,' he said.
Nearly 300 people attended and HK$85,000 was raised through donations and ticket and drinks sales. The money will go to the Ocean Recovery Alliance and Sea Shepherd Hong Kong, with the aim of tackling illegal shark finning and raising awareness on plastic waste in the oceans.
