The Great Arctic Expedition participants' solemn meeting took place at Vnukovo International Airport. 14 schoolchildren and college students, led by Matvey Shparo, the leader and participant of the expedition, Honored Master of Sports, twice winner of the Guinness Book of Records, Knight of the Order of Courage, were greeted by representatives of the Ministry of Education of Russian Federation, the Department of Education and Science of Moscow, teachers of the capital's schools, parents of high school students and journalists to the orchestra music.
On May 31, 2022, the unique hundred-kilometer crossing of Moscow schoolchildren from Bolshaya Island (Komsomolskaya Pravda Island) to Cape Chelyuskin was triumphantly completed. Seven participants of the sports team "Discoverers" repeated the path of the Russian pioneer Semyon Chelyuskin, who discovered these places 280 years ago. After completing the ski trip, they met at the scientific polar station with another group of schoolchildren and college students who conducted scientific experiments and studied the Arctic world and the ecological situation of the Russian North. As a sign of the expedition's completion, which was dedicated to the historical date – the 280th anniversary of discovery of the cape by Russian pioneer Semyon Chelyuskin, students raised the flag of Russia and sang the anthem.
Matvey Shparo, a polar traveler, Honored Master of Sports, twice a diploma holder of the Guinness Book of Records, a knight of the Order of Courage, has been conducting Arctic expeditions for young people for more than ten years. In recent years, with the support of the GBU "Travel Laboratory" and the Department of Education and Science of Moscow, the project has taken shape in a large–scale Large Arctic expedition, the main goal of which is to open our northern borders of Russia to ordinary Moscow schoolchildren. Tens of thousands of children participate in the selection, and only fourteen of them get into the main teams – sports and scientific.
Vnukovo International Airport is one of the largest air transport complexes in Russia. About 200 thousand flights of Russian and foreign airlines are serviced at the airport annually. The airport's route network covers the entire territory of Russia, as well as neighboring countries, Europe, America, Asia and Africa. In 2019 Vnukovo International Airport broke a historical record and served over 24 million passengers, which is 11.7% or 2.5 million passengers more than in 2018. Vnukovo airport complex with a total area of about 300 thousand square meters is able to provide a capacity of up to 35 million passengers per year. Vnukovo International Airport has the Gratitude of the President of the Russian Federation V.V. Putin for the achieved labor successes and high performance in professional activity. It is the one case of such Gratitude among the airports in Russia. In addition, Vnukovo Airport has been recognized as the best airport in the highest category "International Airport" of the national award "Air Gates of Russia" three years in a row, and also has become the winner in the nomination "Best Airport: Facing Challenges 2020" within the framework of the National Exhibition of Civil Aviation Infrastructure NAIS.
