May 20, 2020
News
The 20th anniversary of the Three Kings Collection is finalized and the money may therefore start helping in all the regions of our country. The amount raised by little as well as bigger kings in the collection boxes in January was increased by DMS and other donations sent to the collection account. On April 30th, the fundraised total of the 2020 Three Kings Collection was CZK 133,803,733.
Thanks to the tireless efforts of numerous people, the collection profits broke a record once again, and surpassed last year’s record by almost 11 million CZK. The organizers’ thanks belong especially to the volunteers who organized the fundraising event and set off to the streets with the Three Kings carol on their lips. Thanks to their efforts, people contributed the unbelievable CZK 130,347,953 into the collection boxes. This result shows that donors welcomed the carolling collectors not only with kindness, but, above all, with generosity. And they deserve big thanks for that, just like those who did not hesitate to send a DMS or money directly to the account, which increased the revenue by further CZK 3,455,750. “While over 70 thousand little “kings” went carolling this year, there are still numerous households that we don’t manage to visit in person. We therefore truly appreciate those who contributed even without the personal contact that is so characteristic for the Three Kings Collection. It proves to us that people believe in the collection” explains Gabriela Víšová, the collection’s main coordinator.
Our thanks belong also to our long-term partners, without whom the collection could not develop and help more and more people each year, namely T-Mobile company and Česká Spořitelna Foundation. They employees of the Česká spořitelna bank represent a great benefit for the fundraiser as they counted all the collected CZK 130 million and deposited it into the account. Caritas wants to thank them as well, just like to the employees of municipalities who sealed and unsealed almost 25 thousand donation boxes this year.
The organizers also thank to Leo Express company for this year’s news – fundraising on trains, to City Digital Media for promoting the collection, to Fórum Dárců (Donors’ Forum) for arranging the DMS services, and to the media partners, Czech Television and Czech Radio. “We’d also like to thank to sheltered workshops Reparo Zábřeh, Sansimon Znojmo and Caritas workshop Hrabyně for making the collection promotional items,” adds Gabriela Víšová.
Thanks to the volunteers, donors and partners, the money is now distributed according to a prearranged key and is on its way to charity establishments and project designated by the Caritas in the objectives last year. The charity clients include seniors, people with a handicap, families in need, people without a home, from excluded locations, and the socially disadvantaged. The Three Kings’ aid is as wide as the range of charity services for these people.
The role of vehicles is essential for the social and medical care in the Caritas as they enable the carers to visit the clients, and are used for clients’ pick-up. The Three Kings Collection allows to refurbish the Caritas fleet every year, this year for example in Holešov, Jihlava, Dolní Újezd and Odry. An important part of the charity activities involves hospice and palliative care – the Three Kings Collection will support this in Olomouc, Přerov, Divišov, Rajhrad, České Budějovice, Lišov, and Tachov. Thanks to the collection, charity clothing banks operation will be possible this year in Slaný, Dačice and Nový Jičín. In Český Krumlov, they will use the money from the collection to support sheltered housing, they will replace windows in Saint Joseph’s Home in Červený Kostelec. In Český Těšín, the seniors in the charity housing can look forward to new beds, and in Brno diocese, the collection will contribute to further development of charity safety net for people who fall through the net of state aid. In many caritas, they will use the collection money in unique ways – in Chomutov, it will contribute towards animal keeping in the Parish nursery, in Zlín, it will provide for a summer camp for children and youth with SMA diagnosis and dystrophies, and in the Domažlice region, it will support canis therapy in social services. In terms of help abroad, we can name long distance adoption projects in the Hradec Králové and Plzeň dioceses and Prague archdiocese. And this is only a fraction of how the Three Kings Collection money will help in the Czech Republic as well as abroad.