An increasing number of organizations visiting Orlando wish to make a positive impact on our community where they gather for their conventions and tradeshows. Through Clean the World’s ONE Project, meeting planners can unite the fortunate with the less fortunate.

Attendees collaborate to build hygiene kits for disadvantaged people. Kits include bars of recycled soap, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, a toothbrush, toothpaste, a washcloth and an inspirational message. They are distributed to shelters, missions, schools or disaster relief efforts of the client’s choice.

Visiting groups can elect to donate hygiene kits to a number of homeless, educational and food bank organizations in Central Florida. Potential recipients include the Salvation Army; Coalition for the Homeless, Gift for Teaching, Back to School is Cool, Second Harvest and Christian Relief Services. Since 2009, Clean the World and its outreach partners have distributed more than 250,000 hygiene kits to those in need.

“The implementation of CSR has become widely adopted as more and more companies find tangible value in volunteer activities,” said Kathie Canning, executive director for the OCCC. “With ONE Project, Clean the World provides the perfect way for organizations to integrate a volunteer program on property as part of team building activities while offering much needed help to local community groups.”

Clean the World’s mission is to save lives by distributing hygiene products to domestic homeless shelters and impoverished countries suffering from high death rates due to acute respiratory infection and diarrheal disease. Those illnesses are respectively the No. 1 and No. 2 killers of children under the age of 5.

“While distributing more than 13 million soap bars in nearly 70 countries since 2009, we also saw a huge need for soap and hygiene products right here at home,” said Shawn Seipler, founder and CEO of Orlando-based Clean the World. “That led us to develop the ONE Project. And because we got our start right here in Orlando, it’s exciting for us to get this support and vote of confidence from our friends at the Orange County Convention Center.”

About Clean the World Clean the World Foundation Inc. is a social enterprise with the mission of saving millions of lives around the globe. Clean the World leads a global hygiene revolution to distribute recycled soap and hygiene products from nearly 2,000 hospitality partners to children and families in countries suffering from high death rates due to the top two killers of children worldwide – acute respiratory infection (pneumonia) and diarrheal diseases (cholera). Since 2009, Clean the World has distributed more than 13 million bars of soap in nearly 70 countries. Through the “ONE Project,” Clean the World provides hygiene kits to the homeless and families in transition throughout North America. For more information visit: http://localhost:8888/cleantheworld.

About the Orange County Convention Center Celebrating 30 years of success, the Orange County Convention Center is the second largest convention facility in America. Each year the OCCC attracts more than 200 events to the Central Florida area. As a result, roughly 1.4 million attendees contribute approximately $2.1 billion to the area’s economy each year. For more information about the Orange County Convention Center visit our Web site at www.occc.net.