Benny Nybo

Odense

2021-11-11

Dear ATA Lifetime Honor Winner Madam Lin Jiamei,ATA Special Contribution Award Winner Mr.Niu Gensheng, and other ATA Award Winners.

As the initiator of The Hans Christian Andersen Award and The Hans Christian Andersen Literature Award, which have been presented in Odense in Denmark since 1996 and 2007, I am very honered to be part of the ATA Award Comittee in China.

I am sorry that we can not run the Award Ceremony in Beijing this year face to face because of the corona virus, therefore I will send you a message from Odense, the hometown of the world famous fairy tale poet.

The two Danish Hans Christian Andersen Awards is the stories about the power of ideas and the powers of Awards and powerful pictures of The White Swan, the symbol of Hans Christian Andersen. It is the story of bringing people together learning about the wisdom of fairy tales, the beauty of nature and human life, dreams coming true and the feeling of being connected to higher powers in the universe.

Andersens own life, his fairy tales, books and poems, connects peoples hearts all over the world. He was born in 1805, and when the fairy tales came out one by one, he became more and more famous. When he died in 1875, he had written 156 fairy tales.

An Indian philosopher said, you have most of the answers of your life in the wisdom of Andersens fairy tales，and mostly in the fairy tale 'The Ugly Duckling'.  In 1843 when he wrote this fairy tale, he knew he was a swan. Like all of you ATA Award Winners.

By reading fairy tales for children, they learn to listen, they learn to create pictures and movies in their own mind, you nourish their imagination, and feed their fantasy, you give them the chance to decide what is good and what is bad. And how to use each childrens unique talent and gift in a creative way.

I doen't matter if you are born in a duck yard, so long you are hatched from a swan's egg? and the whole fairy tale of The Ugly Duckling can be interpreted in many ways, social, family, royal and spiritual and survive is a keyword too.

Andersen, The White Swan, is a mirror for all children of the world, for all of us. The White Swan is The National Bird of Denmark.

Briefing of Mr.Benny：  He was an committee member of Odense City.The founder of the Andersen Literature Award, a visiting professor at the H.C.Andersen International Kindergarten College, is also the co-founder of the HCA Teacher’s Award. 

Jack Rowling win the HCA Literature Award

ATA Teacher’s Award has the same swan with the HCA Literature Award, given by Mr.Benny Nybo  

Mr. Benny leading a group AIKC students visting Odense......