Calcutta, Feb 5 :     A wonderful two hours capped seven months of sincere, enthusiastic and dedicated work by over 50,000 schoolchildren during the Better Calcutta Contest awards ceremony on Saturday. And at the end of it, the adults at the packed Science City auditorium had a lot to learn. For the children, representing 30 institutions from across the city, showed how action was possible in a variety of ways that would make Calcutta a better place to live in. The children, from primary and senior schools and institutions for the handicapped, took part in a wide variety of activities. Be it educating street children, organising blood donation drives, beautifying the environment, creating awareness about diseases and hygiene or holding anti-drug rallies, each child had contributed to improving life in Calcutta. 'I hate to love Calcutta... disrupted cricket matches, burning buses, closed factories... But today, for the first time, I'm extremely proud to be a Calcuttan. And all because of you... You are cleaning up the mess that we adults have made,' said Victor Banerjee in his keynote address, as applause rang out from the audience. 'I thank you, and your parents and principals, for having allowed you to work on your projects. I also thank the organisers for having the gumption to realise that children can do better than adults. Please continue to make Calcutta a city all of us will be proud of.' The increasingly-popular contest is organised annually by the ICC Calcutta Foundation to promote greater social and environmental awareness among the adults of tomorrow, involving them in projects that inculcate a sense of responsibility. This year, the contest was sponsored by the Foundation, Britannia Industries and The Telegraph. The main prizes were in three categories. The Telegraph Trophy first prize for social excellence was bagged by Loreto Day School. Besides running Rainbow, a school for Sealdah station's platform children, the students also held a massive polio awareness drive. The second prize in the category went to Aditya Academy Secondary School, while a joint third prize was awarded to St Xavier's Collegiate School and Carmel Primary School. The ICC Trophy for creative excellence went to Calcutta International School for spreading awareness on pollution through a door-to-door campaign and conducting a survey of problems in the city. The second and third positions were bagged by St Joseph & Mary School and Future Foundation, respectively. By conducting workshops on food, malaria, TB and leprosy with the help of experts, students of Sreegopal Vidyamandir learnt and taught others how disease could be prevented. They won the first prize in the Britannia Trophy for healthy living category. The second spot went to St John's Diocesan Girls' School, while Sanat Roy Chowdhury Institution bagged the third prize. In addition, five special prizes and 15 merit awards were given away. Among the recipients were the Centre for Special Education of the Institute of Cerebral Palsy, the Chowringhee KG and High School and Disharee Montessori. As the function closed to the strains of Heal the World, sung by students of various schools, one felt the children had not participated in the contest only for a prize. They really wanted to make Calcutta 'a better place for you and for me.'