Its support is appreciated by parents of young sports talents as well as children in foster homes
The U. S. Steel Košice Foundation has been promoting its objective to help the East Slovakian region and people turn welfare activities into real projects in many areas for fourteen years now. During its existence it has supported hundreds of projects. It has been active in diverse areas, such as education, health care, science, social, humanitarian and charity projects, cultural or environmental protection and stimulation. It has given a helping hand to organizations and institutions with diverse orientation, as well as people facing difficult and challenging life situations.
How do the individual beneficiaries see the support of the U. S. Steel Košice Foundation?
Our colleague Martin Krajňák, who has worked in the Steel Plants division for twelve years is undoubtedly proud of his son, Nicolas, who is a talented ice hockey player. He learned about the program of supporting talented young sportsmen and the possibility of being included in the company program Your Chance To Play, as he told us, from a colleague. He decided to ask for a donation for his son, since his wife is currently unemployed and has no income. Still, Mr. Krajňák and his wife wanted Nicolas to continue with sport.
“It’s been about a year since my son started playing hockey in the HOCKEY LIBA ACADEMY club. His sports achievements say it all. After one month of practicing he was moved to a team of boys who had been playing hockey for up to three years. Three months later he played in his first ice hockey tournament, in which his team took second place. At present he plays for two teams, the third and fourth grade boys, and he is clearly making progress. He finds pleasure in this sport and his success makes him move forward. This all is thanks to the support of the U. S. Steel Košice Foundation. Without their help we wouldn’t be able to see his talent for this sport, since it wouldn’t have been financially feasible under the given circumstances. I think it is a good way for the Company to care about its employees and family members, since it encourages young people to do sports activities that will teach them discipline in their life, show them the right direction, and benefit their wellbeing. I want to thank the Company for this program, and I look forward to future cooperation,” Martin Krajňák concluded.
The support of the U. S. Steel Košice Foundation is also appreciated in the partner Sečovce foster home, where boys and girls aged from 0 to 25 years are being taken care of.
“For several years already the U. S. Steel Košice Foundation has been actively supporting us not only financially, but also by inviting us to social, cultural and sports events throughout the whole year. Just to mention a few of last year’s examples, we attended events such as ice hockey games, theater performances, ice skating, a painting plein-air session, the event called Families Do Sport, we joined the trip to Alpinka, the mini-marathon race, and the great Wishing Trees project,” says Simona Kravcová. She also noted that thanks to the financial support they could purchase stair-climbing equipment for the foster home, which makes it considerably easier to transfer children from the upper floors of the building either to an appointment with the doctor or to school. At the end of 2015 they used the donated funds to procure equipment for their Snoezelen multi-sensory treatment room.
“We will always consider it as a great honor to be able to meet people who do care about our children’s lives and who have generous hearts. We wish to extend our thanks for this amazing cooperation. We really appreciate each single euro that has been used for the benefit of our children and their progress, and for each single invitation to any event. The attendance of events has extremely enriched our children, they have enjoyed numerous experiences and incorporated some culture into their manners. The children now realize how they should behave in the community and this enables them to integrate more easily into the broader social environment, which in our opinion is currently the most acute problem for institutional care,” adds S. Kravcová.
