TORONTO, Aug. 17, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Sunwing has announced that 100 frontline heroes have been awarded with free, all inclusive vacations following the recent Sunwing Celebrates Heroes contest. These Canadians have worked tirelessly during the COVID-19 pandemic and their response efforts went above and beyond the expectations of their peers, families and communities. To celebrate these individuals and all their hard work, Sunwing will be awarding them with all inclusive vacations to select Royalton Luxury Resorts.

The Sunwing Celebrates Heroes contest asked Canadians to nominate deserving frontline workers for this recognition and received over 14,000 submissions. Winners represent Canada’s heroes from coast-to-coast and include health care professionals, emergency service providers, food service workers and law enforcement.

“Reading the stories of our frontline workers has been inspiring. They truly are heroes,” said Samantha Taylor, Chief Marketing Officer of Sunwing. “As a Canadian family-owned business, Sunwing has been supporting Canada’s pandemic response in any way we can. Thanking our hardworking frontline heroes is an important part of this effort. We want to show our appreciation to these dedicated Canadians the best way we can, by making their vacation dreams come true and giving them a well-deserved getaway filled with much-needed rest and relaxation at Royalton Luxury Resorts.”

A few of the frontline heroes who are being recognized include:

• Matthew Morgan, a physician in Halifax who has treated active members of the military and the RCMP amidst both the pandemic and the tragic shooting rampage that took place in April.
• Doris Ho, an emergency room nurse in Toronto, who has supported herself and her live-in parents through the pandemic while juggling two different nursing positions (one part-time, one full-time).
• Helene Kemp, a retired Montreal nurse who has returned to work to support residents in need at a retirement home. Helene herself suffers from leukemia and is deserving of a dream vacation.
• Kaela Colleen, a Registered Nurse who works in the ICU and ER in Vancouver General Hospital. After playing a vital role in life-saving work, she contracted COVID-19 herself and had to fight for her own health for three weeks. She has since returned to the hospital, working tirelessly to support patients with empathy and kindness.

A full list of winners can be found here.

Prior to this initiative, Sunwing has contributed to Canada’s pandemic response efforts by bringing home over 60,000 Canadians, including 3,300 non-Sunwing customers from various destinations, and donating over 46,000 meals to food programs across Canada as part of a national partnership with Second Harvest.

About Sunwing

The largest integrated travel company in North America, Sunwing has more flights to the south than any other leisure carrier with convenient direct service from over 33 airports across Canada to more than 45 popular sun destinations across the U.S.A., Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. This scale enables Sunwing to offer customers exclusive deals at top-rated resorts in the most popular vacation destinations as well as cruise packages and seasonal domestic flight service. Sunwing customers benefit from the assistance of the company’s own knowledgeable destination representatives, who greet them upon arrival and support them throughout their vacation journey. The company supports the communities where it operates through the Sunwing Foundation, a charitable initiative focused on the support and development of youth and humanitarian aid.

For all media enquiries, please contact:

Jacqueline Grossman
Vice President of Marketing & Corporate Communications
Sunwing Travel Group
1-800-387-5602 | media@sunwing.ca

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/1c28799c-286d-4c44-8986-80aaaf0b92cd