Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2006. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Miami Herald - November 9, 2006
Kathleen Fordyce, kfordyce@MiamiHerald.com
But the 17-year-old won't be heading to a luxurious resort or sun-swept beach. His destination: South Africa.
"I think to see everything there first hand will be very dramatic and have a huge impact on me," he said.
Paul, who lives in Kendall, won the national Re*Generation Charm Contest sponsored by Virgin Mobile USA and Virgin Unite, the Virgin Group's charitable arm, along with nonprofits YouthNoise and StandUp for Kids.
His winning design, chosen from hundreds of entries, shows a pair of hands holding an illuminated blue globe. Paul said he took a photo of his outstretched hands and then inserted a blue globe, to him symbolic of someone holding their "energy and soul" and using it to shape and change the world.
His reward is a $6,000 trip for him and his father to South Africa in the spring, where he will spend a week seeing how others live.
Paul said he has visited Chile with his family and was surprised to see the poverty there.
Now, he is preparing himself for what he will see in South Africa.
"It's going to be hard, that's why I didn't want to bring my mom; she would want to adopt all the children and bring them home," he said. "South America, that was poverty, but this will be worse."
Although he doesn't know much about the trip, because the company is still working out the details, he said he definitely will visit an orphanage to see children who have lost their parents to AIDS.
And he doesn't plan to go empty handed.
"I will invest my paycheck and try to bring a suitcase full of stuff they don't have and need," he said. "I will feel like Santa Claus for a day."
The contest challenged young adults to design a cellphone charm, which can be hung from a cord on any phone, to build awareness of at-risk youth around the world.
The other four finalists will travel to New Orleans to help with the ongoing relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina victims.
Ariel Rosen, Virgin Mobile USA's director of pro-social initiatives, said that about twice a year the company sends employees and people like Paul to South Africa, where it is funding programs to help the children orphaned by AIDS or who are battling the disease themselves.
She said Virgin calls the travel "wake up" trips to show young adults how others live and what can be done to help those in need.
"We are hoping they understand that there is the possibility to make change," she said. "There is tons we can do, and we want to show them we can use the forces of the corporate world for good and show what they can do as well."
Paul said he has always enjoyed making short films, photography and dabbling in graphic design.
But this was the first time he entered his work in a contest. Mostly, he was interested in winning Virgin Mobile points toward free stuff, he said.
After he sent in his submission, he forgot all about it.
"This is the first time I've ever won anything," he said. "I had read about the prize but just figured I wouldn't win it."
Paul's father, Robert Dollar, called his son "unique."
"He surprised us [when he won the contest], but then again, he's a surprising kid," he said.
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