Christmas Charity Concert

U. S. Steel Košice “Wishing Tree” Christmas Charity Concert

Date of concert: 9th December 2016 at 7.00 pm.

Venue: Košice State Theater

Performers: Filip Tuma, LA GIOIA, Lina Mayer, Dominika Mirgová, Free Voices, Peter Bič Project, Košice State Theater Orchester conducted by Karol Kevický, and the KST Children's Opera Studio with vocal director Lukáš Kozubík

Presenter: Janette Štefanková

The program also included performances by children from the St. Klement Hofbauer Foster Home in Podolínec, and a Christmas poem recited by Matúš Huďo from a steelmaker's family participating in the “We Are With You At The Right Time” project.

Christmas Charity Concert messages

U. S. Steel Košice provides continuous, long-term support to those who are dependent on assistance from others.
The culmination of the Company's year-round charitable activity is the now-traditional “Wishing Tree” Christmas Charity Concert.

Support for foster homes

U. S. Steel Košice has been supporting foster homes in Eastern Slovakia for 16 years. Nearly all of the foster homes have taken a turn in this program, some of them more than once. In financial terms this support already amounts to nearly 324 000 €.

Every Christmas for the past ten years the foster home children have written their gift wishes on cards, which Company employees have picked from the Wishing Trees and then fulfilled the children's wishes. The trees have taken firm root in the steelmakers' hearts, and many of them take it for granted that they bring pleasure at Christmas not only to their own children, but to the foster home children as well.

In addition to the children's gifts, symbolic checks representing financial support from the Company with a total value of 19 000 € were presented during the Christmas Concert to:

» the St. Klement Hofbauer Foster Home in Podolínec
» the Uralská Street Foster Home in Košice
» the Hniezdo Halfway House in Prešov
» the Halfway House in Košice

Support for the families of employees

Everybody may at some time experience a difficult living situation. This could be due to disease, the death of a partner, or a seriously ill child. There are also people in the steelmakers' community whio have seen the worse side of life.

It is just at such moments when a sense of belonging is vital, when a helping hand needs to be extended and neighborly support provided. And this is the sense of the project called “We Are With You At The Right Time”, which U. S. Steel Košice has been carrying out for the past five years.

The Concert program included short video sequences presenting ten steelmaker's families who find themselves in complicated situations, and who have been included in the “We Are With You At The Right Time” project. These families will be receiving financial assistance from the Company amounting to 2 000 € each.

Announcement of the results of the employees' fund-raising

The Department of Child Oncology and Hematology at the University Children's Hospital in Košice received a symbolic check worth 39 611.71 €, the proceeds from the traditional end-of-year fundraising involving the employees of U. S. Steel Košice and its subsidiary companies, presented by Vladimír Kuruc on behalf of the employees.

The Head of the Department of Child Oncology and Hematology at the University Children's Hospital in Košice Natália Galóová also accepted another symbolic check with the same sum of 39 611.71 € from U. S. Steel Košice President Scott Buckiso.

The total financial assistance for the Department of Child Oncology and Hematology thus amounts to 79 223 €.

This is the 14th time that U. S. Steel Košice has organized fundraising for selected health-care facilities, and together the employees, the Company and the U. S. Steel Košice Foundation have provided those facilities with a total sum of 1 336 223 €.

SUPPORT FOR THE SVETIELKO POMOCI (LITTLE LIGHT OF HELP) NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION

The audience which attended the Concert donated the sum of 3 015 € to the Svetielko pomoci organization.

The SVETIELKO POMOCI non-profit organization provides comprehensive, year-round assistance to families with children suffering from cancer during and after their treatment, and with children in the terminal stages of oncological disease, as well as to families who have lost a child as a consequence of cancer. This assistance is free of charge and is provided throughout the Košice and Prešov regions.