Kosice, December 11th 2006 - Eighteen huge boxes with more than a thousand presents are to be given out tomorrow to children living in the orphanages of
Remetske Hamre, Hostovice, Sarisske Michalany and Podolinec by the wife of the president of U. S. Steel Kosice, Susan Lohr. This load of Christmas gifts for the four orphanages
homes and the Children`s hospital in Kosice was prepared last Friday at the State Theater by U. S. Steel Kosice during a benefit concert which has become a fine tradition during the
days of love, understanding and the aroma of Christmas cakes.
This year the steelmakers arrived with a Christmas concert called the Wishing trees, symbolizing a children`s wish fulfilled. The name was an idea of Susan Lohr,
wife of the president of U. S. Steel, who has visited for the second time the children`s of eastern Slovakia and collected the secret wishes of their young residents. The children wrote
their wishes on little cards, which were then decorated with Christmas trees at the company. The employees did not disappoint, and the individual dreams did indeed become reality. Apart from the
gifts purchased, the steelmakers expressed their generosity in the tradition pre-Christmas financial collection whose proceeds are donated to the Children`s hospital in Kosice.
For this facility the steelmakers collected together 1 357 166 Slovak crowns. That sum however is not all. An equal amount was donated by the firm, and the same sum again was given by the
U. S. Steel Kosice Foundation. The tripled final sum meant a total of 4 071 498 crowns, and will assist to bring in the anesthesiology equipment and ultrasound which are to
serve children from across eastern Slovakia. A symbolic check was presented to the director of the Children`s hospital Kosice, Dr. Ingrid Urbancikova, by U. S. Steel president
David Lohr during the Christmas concert on the 8th of December 2006 at the State theater in Kosice.
Other symbolic checks to a total of 1 million crowns were received by the four orphanages which participated in the Tree of Wishes project, and
another 1 million crowns was presented by company management to the State Theater in Kosice. During the concert itself another collection was announced for the research and aid
for oncology patients, the spontaneous reaction to the wish of an 11 year old girl from one of the homes. Alenka wished that everyone would give at least one crown toward oncology. The prompt
reaction was a sum of 63 270 crowns, which the audience collected that evening directly in the theater. The festive program at the theater had performances from Lenka Filipova, the Jiri Korn
4TET, Nicol McCloud, Slonicata, Jozef Makarovic, Lubica Rybarska, and the SD Orchestra Kosice.
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Further information:
Jan Baca
spokesman
U. S. Steel Kosice, s.r.o.
Tel.: +421 55 673 4476
Fax: +421 55 673 0330
