Asiana presenting moneyboxes

By Lee Hyo-sik

Asiana Airlines will offer passengers dragon-shaped moneyboxes during the Jan. 21-24 Lunar New Year holiday in celebration of the Year of the Black Dragon.

The carrier held a promotional ceremony Thursday in which its employees dressed in hanbok, or traditional Korean costume, and presented children with the gifts at Gimpo International Airport.

The company said it will mobilize all personnel and other resources to ensure aviation safety and provide better services to customers during the upcoming holiday period.

“We have been giving free moneyboxes to those flying with us during the Lunar New Year holiday since 2008. The event is to wish all our customers a happy New Year,” an Asiana Airlines spokesman said. “The airline was born in the Year of Dragon, 24 years ago in 1988. In celebration of the 24th anniversary, all Asiana employees will double their efforts to turn the firm into a leading aviation service provider in the 21st century.”

Asiana employees will also be given moneyboxes to raise money for charity. “Employees will put money in moneyboxes all year around.

At the year’s end, they will be collected. The funds raised will be spent to finance a range of corporate social responsibility activities,” the spokesman said.

In 2011, a total of 20 million won ($17,400) was donated. It was used to help implement community service programs both at home and abroad.

“Last year, Asiana was involved in a wide range of social responsibility activities, particularly in developing countries. One group of Asiana employees visited a remote village in the Philippines in June to help improve their living conditions. They installed communal drinking water tanks and bathrooms, while donating stationary items and built study rooms for the children there,” he said.

The company also set up street lights and donated 586 school bags for children from poor families in Cambodia, installed water tanks in China and built houses for the underprivileged in Vietnam,.

A group of Asiana employees and executives held an event Thursday to make “tteokguk,” or a beef soup with rice cake, with migrant wives and their children at a migrant workers support center in Seoul.