It was a truly extraordinary afternoon. On Sunday, October 4, at the swimming pool on Maratońska Street in Zgorzelec, visitors could not only meet four swimming champions: Agata Korc, Paweł Korzeniowski, Radek Kawęcki and Rafał Kusto, but also swim alongside them in a relay, try the champions’ training routine, collect the guests’ autographs and bid on swimming accessories they had brought. Visitors could also regain their strength with delicious cake offered in the passage between the sports and swimming halls, in exchange for a donation to PAH, by volunteers from Cogito.
Together, more can be achieved
All this happened thanks to the “Swimming for Nepal” campaign, organized at the inspiration of Dorota Tyniec jointly by students of the Zgorzelec Cogito High School and Middle School and coaches from UKS Energetyk, with the support of the mayor of Zgorzelec and the Zgorzelec Sports and Recreation Centre. Raising funds to rebuild a school in Nepal was the reason for the best Polish swimmers’ one-day journey from Warsaw to Zgorzelec and back.
Was it worth it? The PLN 2,283.20 collected that afternoon speaks for itself. The sum consisted of small and quite substantial donations that went into the volunteers’ collection boxes on Sunday. Almost half of the amount came from the auction of accessories brought by the champions: swimming goggles, caps and a national-team shirt bearing autographs and hearts drawn by the guests, for which the Bogatynia PATOM SWIM club paid as much as PLN 630! This record contribution demonstrated the power of teamwork, but the generosity of individual bidders also deserves equal recognition. That day, no one who could afford the pleasure of acquiring champions’ memorabilia spared money on swimming goggles and caps. Considerable sums were offered in the competition for these unusual souvenirs, so understandably, the buyers were mainly adults. All the more moving was the gesture of the youngest bidder—just under 10 years old—who without hesitation reduced the contents of his piggy bank, postponing the purchase of his dream tablet, in order to enjoy owning a champion’s cap bearing the autograph of his sporting idol.
The extraordinary guests meant that even the certificate received as a keepsake by all participants in the charity swim became a trophy that day. It is not often that as many as four genuine sports champions sign a single certificate!
“We know that: THOSE WHO GIVE BECOME INFINITELY RICH,” the organizers say. “That is why we once again sincerely thank everyone who took part in our campaign, especially the reliable young swimmers and their coaches from Bogatynia. We also thank the mother of swimming champion Elżbieta Korc, Mayor Rafał Gronicz and the employees of the Zgorzelec municipal office, CSR president Piotr Gruszczyński and the company’s employees, coach Joanna Jęchorek from Wrocław, and Departament Druku printing house, without whose help we would not have been able to organize the event in such a short time.”
Gimnazjum i Liceum Ogólnokształcące COGITO w Zgorzelcu/ii