On Sunday, 22 November, an event entitled “Let’s Help the Children of Bosnia” was held in the “Forum” hall for six hours. It was organized by the Bolesławiec Cultural Centre together with the Municipal Culture and Sports Centres in Bolesławiec and Nowogrodziec, in cooperation with the local branch of the Polish Red Cross in Bolesławiec.
No other region is as well suited to this kind of undertaking as the area where re-emigrants from Yugoslavia settled.
The activities were divided into three phases:
1. PREPARING THE EVENT (finding sponsors, publicizing the undertaking, preparing the programme),
2. HOLDING THE EVENT (organizing a fair with homemade baked goods, donated beverages, confectionery products, etc.,
- running a raffle with prizes that were not necessarily suitable as gifts for the Bosnian children, such as a sandwich toaster or a dinnerware set;
- selling gifts donated by private sponsors (e.g. tracksuits or jackets, offered for purchase at a symbolic price as gifts for refugees, with the donor’s card);
- a photographic service (the opportunity to have one’s portrait taken cheaply and quickly),
- a concert by groups presenting the folklore of former Yugoslavia (groups from Ocice and Brzeźnik, the Herbut family from Tomisław, Milikowianki and Gościszowianki performed free of charge, and the proceeds from admission tickets were allocated to the children of Bosnia);
- a collection box and a public collection, already operating from the morning film screening.
3. HANDING OVER THE GIFTS and money for the event’s purpose (organizing transport, developing the form of delivery). I have deliberately presented the details of the event to make its opponents, or people indifferent to its results, realize that leaving home on a Sunday afternoon and buying an admission ticket or a raffle ticket is not too great an effort. Unfortunately, in Bolesławiec, a city particularly connected with Bosnia, 9 million złoty was collected that day from all the activities listed (we had expected twice that amount).
Recognition should, however, be given mainly to the shop owners, but also to wholesalers and private individuals—from whom large quantities of winter clothing, footwear, toys, underwear and school supplies arrived, worth 65 million złoty.
In summarizing the entire undertaking, on behalf of the organizers I would like to thank all those who understood the need to help the defenseless victims of the civil war in a country they regarded as friendly. I also believe that all those for whom 15,000 is perhaps not an excessive price for a ticket to a concert lasting several hours, but who prefer the comfort of an armchair in front of the television, where they may happen to watch the atrocities of a civil war, should be made to feel ashamed.
I send you my warmest regards and wish that we Poles may never need such help.