FOR WOŚP
Last year there was a great deal of fuss surrounding the GREAT ORCHESTRA OF CHRISTMAS CHARITY. More than now. Somehow it happened that the Zespół Szkół Zawodowych im. mjra. H. Sucharskiego on ul. Komuny Paryskiej in Bolesławiec was bypassed by the Orchestra. There were indeed some donations for the children, and someone from outside was collecting them, but that was all. In December, W.O.Ś.P. came to Bolesławiec again. The students and the teaching staff of that School became the next link in this chain of people of good will. A student of the third year of the Liceum Ekonomiczne, BERNARD LĘTOWSKI, writes about it:
As often happens, on Wednesday Cyprian and I went out into the corridor to "work on" some blues on guitar, harmonica and two voices. The Polish teacher, Ms Fijałkowska, came up to us and suggested that we put on a concert at school for the Great Orchestra. A small explanation is needed here: when someone is learning to play an instrument, they grab that instrument at every opportunity. Cyprian and I are no exception, so it is hardly surprising that we did not think for long.
After an hour, posters made by Bogdan's talented hand were already hanging in the corridor. They announced to the people that a concert with a collection of money for W.O.Ś.P. would take place in the corridor on Thursday. We recruited Ania (vocals), Romek (guitar) and Sylwek (mainly bass) to our hastily named "band", CYPRIAN BROTHERS BLUES BAND. Then we agreed on what we would play, and all that remained was to wait for Thursday.
The next day we did not start playing until the long break. All the commotion was caused by a delay that was my fault; I had simply slept two hours longer than I should have. The CYPRIAN BROTHERS BLUES BAND repertoire was not very extensive, but that was hardly surprising, since it was our first time playing in that lineup. It turned out that we would collect very little during the break, because the money flowed into the hat slowly and reluctantly. There were exceptions, of course, but something had to be changed.
So we began visiting the classes. We would enter, and Cyprian would convincingly explain to the teachers conducting the lessons why we had invaded the classroom; as a result, the teacher would eventually agree to a short performance. Cyprian and I played about three pieces, while Bogdan collected money in Ms Fijałkowska's beret. Then we went to the next class and the story repeated itself. After two hours we had about half a million. We collected this money mainly thanks to KASZANKA—a song about culinary themes written by Cyprian GRACZYK. Within two hours, KASZANKA became a school hit.
On Friday we decided to repeat the collection. The scenario was similar—we entered the classroom, Romek (Cyprian was on leave) played classical music, then Ania sang something, and finally "Lambada". If the class was generous, we played an encore. Again, it was two lessons and again almost half a million.
So far, we have collected 900,000 zł. I think we will play a little more again in a few days, because it would be good to reach at least one million. I will take this opportunity to say thank you:
To Ms Fijałkowska for the ideas and the beret, to Cyprian for "KASZANKA", to Romek for Gomez and to Ania for singing, to Sylwek for bass, and to Bogdan, Krzysiek and Asia for collecting and the difficult work of the cheerleaders.
To the teachers for their tolerance, and to all the donors for their generosity.