W-INNER.: February 2010

Tune in Activity Calendar - March 2010

Tune in Activity in and Birthday Calender for March released.

Let's see how to make a perfect escape during March: February was a great month in many ways. We got a huge support for Haiti fund raising events, in terms of business it was a great month with over 80% of occupancy and we have done a great job to wow our guest experiences. Looking forward to March

* 3rd & 21st are for our fisherman talents to escape for a sunset fishing.
* 4th we have W the idol at nook, its time to sing!
* 7th, 8th, 16th & 25th are Male Escape dates. Oh yeah it means shopping, banking and coffee with friends in Male. Plan ahead to book your seat on your day off.
* 14th March, Talent party @ 15 Below
* 18th March, for the first time we have an overnight trip in Meerufenfushi - it means lot of fun!
* ooooooOOOPsy be aware of your room it should be CLEAN, Tidy! Room inspection day is 20th
* Wanna have a coffee with ME? guess who!!! Coffee with who is on 22nd @ himendhoo
* Last but not least, Starwood cares ceremony + talent X party on 28th
* Finally there will be a wonderful party for all March birthday babies on 31st

Don't forget to wish each birthday baby on their birthday during the month!

We will miss you Afeef, See you again!

click the image to see more pictures

We would like to take the time to personally thank you and commend you for all of your efforts over the past two months from December 28, 2009 – February 28, 2010 in assisting our Human Resources Brigade here at the W Retreat & Spa - Maldives. We greatly appreciate your contribution & also wish to express our appreciation towards facilitating our Human Resources Brigade the past two months.

Thank you, once again, for all your hard work towards the continuing success of W Retreat & Spa – Maldives. W will surely miss you, goodbye until we meet again.

Friendly soccer match - Unique City Vs Little B Club

1 - 0 FT

Friday 26th February: Little B Club won the friendly game 1-0 against Unique City yesterday. After a controversial transfer between Unique and Little due to Azza who moved from Little to Unique both teams played a very nice game with lot of great opportunities to score but it was Little B who won the game with an early first half score. More friendly games are scheduled between clubs and the next big game is between Big Brothers and Touch Club on 5th March

Wonderful Birthday-- Naseer!

The Hurt Locker on B.B.C tonight

See you all from B.B.C!

The Starwood Maldives Collection Shows Care for Haiti

THE STARWOOD MALDIVES COLLECTION SHOWS CARE FOR HAITI
W Retreat & Spa-Maldives and Sheraton Maldives Full Moon Resort & Spa
Raise Over $20,000USD for the Victims of the Haiti Earthquake
Read full press release, click here

Wonderful Birthday Sven & Shan

Happy Birthday Sven & Shan

W Care Haitians on CNN iReport

Click the image to follow iReport on CNN.com
Appreciate if you all can leave a comment to spread the words

Talents, Let Us Hit the SWITCH to Conserve Energy

There has been a tremendous increase of power/electricity consumption noted in our wonderful island for the past few months, even way above proportions with respect to our occupancy. Perhaps it is time again that 'W TALENTS CARE!' This time for the planet. It's as simple as hitting the SWITCH! After all, Maldives is in a fierce battle against climate change!

Any more comments/suggestions about how we can save energy and power in our own little ways in our Talent Escape?

Good bye Chef Sotiris, Until we meet again!

Chef Sotiris said on his farewell speech, "It was a challenging 2 years I spent with us in this wonderful W resort with many great experiences. It was the first time in Asia and first time in a resort for me and it was first time in this post as well for me. But you all made it easy for me with your best support you have given me during my stay here. I didn't only give and shared things with you all, today when i am leaving from here to move on with my career i am also taking a lot of things from you all. Many fond memories and wow experiences"

Before the end of his speech Chef said, "Now i am a better chef and a better man :)"

Last night culinary team organized a small gathering for Sotiris farewell with a nice video presentation. Chef Wicus delivered a sweet message from the legendary W chef Oscar Perez who left his legacy here in W. Chef Wicus concluded his speech saying "Sotiris, when you are leaving today from W i am sure your legacy will remain here too. Good luck my friend and wish you all the best in your life"

Here is a short email by Sotiris he sent out to all users email yesterday!

"Dear Friends & Colleagues,

They say, “all good things come to an end” and I guess they are right! The time has come to say goodbye to W Retreat & Spa – Maldives.

The beauty of this island lies not only on the breathtaking coral reefs and the white sand, but as well on the people who have made this my Home for 2years.

I would like to thank you all for your camaraderie, your smiles, your inputs and your friendship. You have influenced me in a way you can’t imagine!

I know that we’ll meet again each other somewhere around our small world.

Stay in touch – Sotiris.katir@gmail.com

Best Regards,

Sotiris Katirtsigianoglou"

Wonderful Birthday - Ahmed Shimal!

Happy Birthday Shimal

**** THANK YOU!!

Message from Nikki, Complex HR Director

Our Help Haiti Fund raising efforts put forth by W Retreat & Spa - Maldives. Talents produced a total of $5221.13, WOW!

The Money raised is just the tip of the iceberg. The brilliant ideas, caring thoughts, selfless efforts, late nights--- they are just priceless. W Talents, you are generous with your time and ideas, giving of your energy, lavish with your hearts.

Your HR Department is WOWED by your talent and generosity and so very proud to be associated with you.

Starwood Corporate will match $1.50 for every $1.00 raised by W Talents!

"The earthquake destroyed lives and devastated a weakened nation, Our Talents cared for their lives and raised a Wonderful donation."

Thanks to each and everyone!

Special Thanks to:

* The W-INNER, Big Brothers, Club Little Billionaires, Touch Club and The Unique City Club for coming up with fun and worthwhile initiatives.
* The Food and Beverage Department for providing culinary delights in support of the activities, despite its busy schedule.
* The Executive Office for gracing all activities with enthusiastic support despite spontaneous surprise invitations.
* The Talent Shop for its "Shop for Haiti" promotion.
* All behind-the-scenes Contributors and Departments.

Thank you All,
Nikki Mccaffrey / Complex Director of HR

Tonight on Big Brothers Cinema - Ac Milan vs Man Utd

UEFA Champions League Round of 16 - 16.02.10 20:45 CET - Stadio Giuseppe Meazza - Milan, will be also live on Big Brothers Cinema tonight. 7 times champion AC Milan will meet in home with English Champions tonight. This match is remarkable in many ways such as, David Beckham is set to play against his old club for the first time since leaving seven years ago. The England international says it is the first time he's ever wanted Man Utd to lose. Meanwhile, Fergie says Rooney is a worldclass player who can change the game.

How about domestic support for these clubs in our Wonderland? W-INNER questioned number of talents about their thoughts score prediction for this game and here it goes!
Faxyl - "I am a member of AC Milan fans club and a true Rossoneri supporter, Man Utd? do they even play football? AC will win tonights game by 2-0"
Habeeb - "Man Utd is world number one club and they will win, you wait and see if AC can even play tonight. My score is 1-0 no need to score too much" said Habeeb

Faxyl, Nuaas, Lirar, Naadhu, Boos, Ubachan, Samos, Abbas, Nazeef, Shiraz, Hilmy, Haleem, Alim all support AC Milan & Habeeb, Haroon, Waddey, Waseem, Easa support Man Utd

Big Brothers will put this fantastic Champions League Round of 16 game on B.B.Cinema tonight.

Maldives National Day - Friendly Volleyball match

15th February, Maldives 64th National day was celebrated in our Wonderland with a special friendly volleyball match organized by our Style Department. The match was played between Style team and the rest and Style won the game by 3 sets. With National and WoW spirit the match was played and all the talents enjoyed the beautiful game by our wonderful volleyball players. Style says they are unbeatable in volley or soccer you name it anything. Wow thats really an unbeatable chanlange by them.

Wonderful Birthday - Sotiris!

HASSAN WEDS NASH (12-02-10)

So they finally married. Wish them a life of marital bliss.

Making the decision to tie the knot is a biggest step in every man’s life and one that he must be sure of once you ask your dream girl to marry you.
We would definitely like to share with all the W Talents as much as we know about the cherishing moments of any of our colleague if we come to know that. here is one example.
One of our dearest friend HASSAN (Fish Restaurant Team Leader) got married Friday (12-02-10) afternoon and celebrated his day of dream with a huge party to their family members and friends. HASSAN weds NASH Party took place in one of the well know restaurant LEMON GRASS Garden in capital Male'.
What would make you happier than Bride & Groom calling you on your personal cell phone to invite you on their special day celebration. Luckily i was in capital city where Hassan & Nash called me personally on my mobile phone to invite me. Guys here I've attached few snapshots from my phone and thought i should share this with you guys.

Dear friends please call HASSANASH and WISH them on this great occasion.

Wonderful Birthday - Yaasin and Hussain!

Happy Birthday Yasin & Hussein!

W care for Haiti

W Care for Haiti, series of fund raising events since 4th February has come to a conclusion last night with a great show organized by Unique City. On 4th Feb we kicked off with a friendly soccer match between Touch vs Little and Touch won that game. First day we raised funds from Kurumba stall, Hotdog stand, T-Shirt selling & special signed ball auction as well as a very generous personal contribution of 500$ by Saleem.

We also raised significant amount from the garage sale which continued for 3 days. First day of garage sale there was a volleyball match between Touch & a Mix team among Talents and Touch won. All the items to the garage sale were donated by our Talents and those items were sold for reasonable prices. Cafe Haiti was also a big success as many had tea from the funky cafe with extraordinary services.

The finale was last night and Unique city brought us a very unique event with a music band featuring a DJ. Unique organized food packages to sell with well done beetle nut package. F&B organized a nice dessert bar with watermelon. Big thank-Q to Chef and team.

The whole fund raising event was a big success and so far we have raised a significant amount for Haitians to build their future. This could never be a success without the help of our clubs, and management. W-INNER salute all the members of Touch, Little, Unique & Big B club for making this such a remarkable event where we all enjoyed. We are always W and we are always different. W will always care Haiti and there will be more events to come. We will not forget after these events but we will continue our best support.

Check the MobileMe picture gallery for all the pix of W Care for Haiti events!

Fundraising Finale Tonight @ the NOOK!

Wonderful Birthday to Ali!

Haiti Cafe presents High Tea for Haiti!

Garage Sale is opened today, Touch Vs Mix - Touch Won

Garage Sale for Haiti is opened today, David cut the ribbon to open this event and we had a huge turnover for today itself. There are many funky items to buy and the window is still open if there is any Talent who would like to clean there wardrobe and contribute stuffs. Garage Sale will continue everyday until 10th February's grand Finale!

Apart from Garage Sale, today's friendly volleyball match between Touch Club & Mix Club was a superb event as well, where both clubs played a nice game hammering the ball on each side of the court. Each won a set and Touch Club won the game by 2-1 against mix team. Touch was unbeatable in today's game especially when Zareer's hot shots with his signature short jump strikes. It was a beautiful game between both teams with huge support from outside.

Wonderful Birthday--- Birendra!

Sellers and Buyers Invited--- GARAGE SALE!

Clean up your closets. Give up those gadgets.

Find them useful for others who are willing to buy them.

Double the blessing-- you delighted the buyer, you care for Haiti Earthquake Victims!

CHECK OUT THE GARAGE SALE RUNNING FOR 3 AFTERNOONS!

Garage Sale for Haiti Releif Fund

Garage Sale for Haiti Relief Fund: will be another event starting from 8th Feb until 10th Feb. We are getting huge support from Talents for the event and we have already collected so many stuffs for the Sale. We have lot of interesting valuable items for a very affordable prices. Also if there anything you would like to give away which you are not using anymore can contribute to this fund raising sale for Haitians. 8th Feb at 4:00PM the sale will start and at the same time there will be a friendly Volleyball game between Touch Club and a combine team.

SALE! SALE! SALE! SALE! SALE! SALE! SALE! SALE! SALE!

Local news Haveeru.com updates

W Care Haiti news is on local news. Last night TVM brought the news and today it is on Local News Haveeru Online. click the picture to redirect Haveeru.com.mv page

Wonderful Birthday-- Desmond!

Live Band for Haiti! Coming Soon!

W Talents 'Care for Haiti' Kickoff Event a Success!

04 February 2010, 4:00 PM. Talents of W gathered at the GAMEZONE to witness the official kickoff of the FUND RAISING initiatives the different clubs have put forth to gather funds to help Haiti. It was awe-inspiring, unprecedented display of esprit-de-corp W-style.

The event started with messages from David and Nikki who both were overwhelmed by the way creative fund raising ideas were bubbling from the bottom, and the management has seen the enthusiasm from talents without being them prodded. Earlier this week, “$5 Haircut for Haiti” came up from ideas of the Unique City Club members. The Talent Shop introduced “Shop for Haiti’ where 5% of shoppers payments will go to the W Haiti Fund.

Back to the event—a minute of silence was observed to remember the victims of Haiti. The talents gathered in a W formation, a perfect scene for the TV Maldives crew who were covering the event from the rooftop of Block A. Yes, stay tuned for the airing of the coverage tonight or tomorrow!

The event’s highlight was the Charity Football Match between Touch Club and Club Little Billionaires. Before the match, “Coconut Bar”, “ Hot Dogs for Haiti”, "Shirts for Haiti" were opened. Talents trooped the stalls and paid minimum a dollar for the refreshments. But wow! Some generous talents went all out—Boose paid 10 Euros for his hot dog, Saleem of Stewarding dropped my jaw when he gave out 470$ for nothing (no hotdog, no coconut), Ubachan won for himself in a bid the ceremonial signature soccer ball for 350 Euros!

In a charitable and friendly spirit, the Football Match ended with the Touch Club victorious.

More fundraising ideas are still bubbling from the minds of talented talents—stay tuned for “Sunset Fishing for Haiti”, “Live Band Night for Haiti”, “Volley Match for Haiti”, “Laundry for Haiti?”, and a lot lot more. Talents are aiming for a significant donation which will be matched 1.5dollar per dollar by Starwood!

The world saw Maldives devastated by the 2004 tsunami. The Maldivians saw help from the world. It’s payback time. And W talents care!

Dear Talented W Talents,

As you know, a catastrophic earthquake hit the island of Haiti on January 12, 2010, causing severe damage and taking many lives. The outpouring of concern and inquiries about how we can all help has been just amazing. Although Starwood does not have any hotels in Haiti, we have many associates with strong connections to Haiti, and our hearts go out to those that have been impacted by this tragedy. There are many things we can all do to support our fellow associates during this difficult time, as well as ways we can support overall relief efforts for Haiti. How can you help?

"A similar disaster occurred December 2004 in this part of the world, Maldives was hit by a powerful Tsunami and about two third of the islands of the country were damaged and some severely. 73 people were confirmed dead and 31 missing. To rebuild this part of the world including our country we received huge support and aid from UN, Red Cross, Other Governments, International Companies, Individuals and many more.

It is now our time to help Haitians who are in need of our help. Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake. Its epicentre was near Léogâne, approximately 25 km (16 miles) west of Port-au-Prince, the capital of Haiti. The earthquake occurred at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010, at a depth of 13 km (8.1 miles). The United States Geological Survey recorded a series of at least 33 aftershocks, 14 of which were between magnitudes 5.0 and 5.9 and it is confirmed that the disaster would eventually claim between 100,000 and 200,000 lives. The Haitian authorities confirmed that they had buried 150,000 people as of 24 January. The earthquake caused major damage to Port-au-Prince, Jacmel and other settlements in the region. Many notable landmark buildings were significantly damaged or destroyed, including the Presidential Palace (President René Préval, who was in the building at the time, escaped injury), the National Assembly building etc...

W Care Haiti kicked off yesterday with a great charity football match between Touch Club Vs Little B Club and Touch won the game 2-0. More to come, stay tune!