When it comes to organizing successful and fun eventsfor the benefit of children living in institutions, leave it to Vaclav “Vasek“ Cermak, Chance 4 Children (C4C)project manager, to come up with great ideas! This time was no different. On Sunday April 29th, Vasek set the stage for the stars of the country’s leading musicals, ”Excalibur” and ”Angelika”, to unite their efforts to lead the children of 13 rural orphanages as team captains for the C4C BOWLING CUP PRAHA 2007!
Organized at Prague’s leading bowling venue, Best Bowling, at the Metropole Zličín Shopping Center, the mood was right for an action packed evening. Thanks to the management of Best Bowling, the premises were made available on a complimentary basis for this special event.
Stars lead a busy life and it was no small task to get so many singers and stars from two hugely successful and competing musicals rallied behind a common goal. It almost bordered on a miracle! But for the sake of over 60 children, eagerly awaiting the participation of their idols, they all came to lead their respective teams to victory. “Leave it to Vasek to make the impossible possible“, grins Katka Wojasova, one of Chance 4 Children volunteers staffing the event. “I don’t know how he does it…“ Just weeks prior to this Vasek had managed to organize a similar event for children in Brno, mobilizing almost the entire TV NOVA team of stars, and the major of the nation’s second largest city, to participate. Click here to read about it.
And so it came that singers Marian Vojtko, Alan Bastien, Tomáš Savka, Ali Amiriand Dasha from Musical Angelika and their counterparts from Musical Excalibur, Kamil Střihavka, Václav Noid Bárta, Tereza Hálová, Martin Pošta, Helena Dytrtová and Lukáš Kumpricht, gave their very best to afford the participating children literally the time of their lives!
Comments Denisa Kalatova, 13, one of the participants from the orphanage in Zatec: “Incredible! This was really a dream come true for us!“
One of the highlights of the evening was the close friendship that developed between the youngest participant, Deniska, and Excalibur‘s Vaclav “Noid“ Barta. To the delight of the media and attending photographers, Noid (who in real life is married to Lucie Bila, arguably the countries best known female vocalist), proved to be a real pal and knight in shining armor to this little lady, barely strong enough to lift the bowling ball.“Even though fun and competition are major ingredients in events like this, our real objective here is to integrate institutionalized children into society and provide them with positive role models to follow“, explains Vaclav Cermak. “The children were thrilled to spend a whole evening together with stars and personalities they know from TV and the media and interact with them on a personal level.“ And interact they did! In order for the children to also meet up with other kids their age, C4C had also invited some children from “normal“ backgrounds, which helped forge friendships beyond the gates of the institutions.
Socialization and integration events are integral parts of C4C’s Springboard to Life(STL) initiative. Together with the programs educational and vocational aspects, they prepare children tucked away in institutions, for a successful integration into societyand life. The implementation of STL is, to a large degree, made possible with the gracious cooperation of the VODAFONE Foundation, CR.
The event was dynamically MC’d by Robert Hegr, managing director of Entity Productions, organizers of the Miss Czech 2007 communication campaign. Robert’s expertise and humor rounded up the evening and added his personal and special touch to an unforgettable evening.
And as the evening drew to a close, many of the children received invitations to the musicals from their team leaders, which by now had long turned into friends and buddies.
