43 children from state care institutions lived in the hope that Saint Nicholas would make their dreams come true despite night attacks, lack of electricity and war in Ukraine.
Thus, during December 2-3, children from four children's institutions in Ternopil spent time with Saint Nicholas in one of the supermarkets in the city of Ternopil. Filled with joy, warmth and attention of volunteers, each child was able to make their dream come true and get a lot of real emotions from the process.
The charity event “Shopping with Saint Nicholas” united 72 caring people from Ukraine, the USA and the UK, who acted as magicians and worked a miracle in such a difficult time for Ukraine. The children saw that their dreams are important to others and that there are people who find the time and opportunity to give joy and care. The children sincerely thank the benefactors for the impressions and real emotions of the holiday.
The event is unique in that St. Nicholas and his assistants took into account the interests of the children, which had a profound positive impact on their self-esteem. After all, every boy and girl felt the freedom to choose what they wanted, there was a sense of the importance of their wishes, which will remain for a lifetime. The children especially noted that they enjoyed spending time with the volunteers, talking about various things during shopping and during tea with Nicholas. At the end, each child received a greeting card with wishes. It was very emotionally important for the children that they created and signed a card for them. We thank the volunteers Yulia and Victoria from the charitable foundation "Caritas-Ternopil" for their involvement and emotional support of the children. A special feature of the holiday was that the children improved their skills and financial literacy skills, and had the opportunity to go outside their institutions for a short time. All the children coped with the tasks and got what they wanted, although it was not easy.
We thank the volunteers who shared the joy with our children: supermarket employees Oksana, Mariana, our assistants: Volodymyr, Zoryana, Andriy, Paul from England, Vasyl, and Veronika.
The total cost of the charity event was: 72500 UAH
