Sometimes I would like to start with "in December, as usually..." - but it should not sound so routinely, although I feel like it is some kind of a routine. I have been coming to Zełwągi and organising the Christmas charity action every December for 9 years now. Every time we bring so needed help - but also every time I learn something new. I meet new people. I see those new people learning something thanks to our action. I see people who change from beneficiaries to willing givers. It is really great!
What is this action about? There are two basic components - but may be more ;-) First - there are food packages for Christmas. In the village of Zełwągi and area around it there are many people who are just short of food. We cannot help everyone and everytime - but at least some people (we are choosing families with kids) may get some help, some food for Christmas. We think about traditional Christmas cakes - so packages include flour, sugar, baking powder, margarine, cocoa, dried fruits and nuts) as well as about kids - so there you can find chocolate, fruits and sweets.In some of homes we can see products being used even before we leave...
Weather this year was fantastic and winter was so beautiful. It was not as hard as it looks to drive on this snow. Only once we went into drifts and ended up off the road, stucked in snow. But we were lucky - very soon another driver (female or enormous strenght) helped us push the car onto the road again.
It is a real logistics challenge to buy food for so many packages, each of them containing abot 12 - 13 kilos of food. Our rich experience (yeah, I know, the routine...) proved that it is better to use big markets then wholesale suppliers. But imagine what you can hear when buying 100 packages of pasta (two full trolleys) in a supermarket ;-) (Man, what's going on, war??? No, in our village we just prepare one, big soup for everybody...). Customer service in this hectic time before Christmas is usually friendly, but sometimes they seem to be willing to count whether declared 150 packages of baking powder (0,15 PLN / piece, it is 0,05 USD) is really 150 and not 151.
With this scale of purchase it is necessary to check several supermarkets to find th ebest deals and use money as wisely as possible. One does not notice price differences that much when you buy just single products, but when you buy hundrets, every penny counts. This year we did all the shopping in smaller towns of Mrągowo and Mikołajki - in previous years we often drove to Olsztyn (80 kms). It is suprising that sometimes prices of the same products in different shops may differ as much as 25 - 30 percent. So our action starts with a "shop comparison tour" to determine where and what should be purchased.
And once things are bought, they need to be packed. Kids in Zełwągi have been waiting all day to help with preparation of packages - and that could have happened not earlier then on Saturday evening. We pack the products into big, blue bags. They are subsequently decorated with a red ribbon to make them look attractive.;-)
We spent night on the mattresses in the old school.
And eventually we go to hand in packages - Sunday morning.
Only one of "Santa Claus' teams" got stuck in the snow - but all beneficiaries could get their packages. Even if the modern version of sleigh could not make it...
... there was always an option to walk with packages - here you can see the Santa Claus team on the way to snow-covered village called Tałty. On the picture - Marcin from Zełwągi and Mariusz from Mikołajki, young men who help with the action every year. 
And it was worth to make an extra efford and get there. In some cases the living conditions of families with small kids are really tragic. But thanks to the "Zełwągi Action" I have learnt that great, good and interesting people may come even from a very poor and unprivileged homes. But they must have extra strength, lots of courage and they must work much harder... but they can. Sometimes they need direct support (including financial support), usually they need friendship and psychological support - as it was the most lacking thing in their homes.
Also intellectual support is necessary. And here the other component of our action plays an important role. There, in Zełwągi, we have a great partner in our activity - the Zełwągi Cultural and Educational Association, which is operated by volunteers and carries out many fantastic activities in the premises of the former school building. They created a kindergarden, library, professional computer room, gym... As part of ouur action we have brought books to the library and toys for the kindergarden, which is aimed at giving village kids chances not worse then those enjoyed by children from the city. Just imagine - kids in the village, where farms are miles one from another, do not even know how to play with other kids. When they enter school at age of 6 it may be very difficult to teach them how to interact properly with other kids. Kidergarden helps in that and gives those kids a chance.
The Zełwągi Charity Action is organised from the very begining in cooperation of members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the Zełwągi Cultural and Educational Association. In the past there was a branch of the Church in Zełwągi (the only branch in Poland) and there still is a building of the former Mormon Chapel (built 1929, as a first in the continental Europe), which now serves as a Roman Catholic Church. Thanks to the co-operation of the mambers of the Association the memory about the past is preserved and that small, Masurian village is a much better place on Earth.
Next year we will have a small anniversary - 10 years of the Christmas Charity Actions. I hope that many people will be willing to experience how to be a Santa Claus for a day and bring real joy.
Our action is possible thanks to people, who offer their time and support in different forms. I cannot name all of them, but would like to express my gratitude specially towards Michael Isaac - for the support of the initiative, to Monika Dublicka and Karina Wietrak for their continuous support, to Danka Butkiewicz, Bogusia and Adam Karolczyk, Krzysztof and all friends from the Zełwągi Association for the fantastic help on the spot, in Zełwągi, to Dominik Łyżwiński for organising a book collection and participation in the action, to Tomek Odintsov for participation and the "Santa Claus" role, to Marcin Abramek and Mariusz Izdebski for all their help on the spot.
So - if anybody is willing to support our action in the future, has creative ideas on how to develop it and bring assistance in different forms, or wonders wheher can help somebody, but does not know exactly how - send me a message.
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| "Highway" to Zełwągi |
And eventually we go to hand in packages - Sunday morning.
... there was always an option to walk with packages - here you can see the Santa Claus team on the way to snow-covered village called Tałty. On the picture - Marcin from Zełwągi and Mariusz from Mikołajki, young men who help with the action every year. 
And it was worth to make an extra efford and get there. In some cases the living conditions of families with small kids are really tragic. But thanks to the "Zełwągi Action" I have learnt that great, good and interesting people may come even from a very poor and unprivileged homes. But they must have extra strength, lots of courage and they must work much harder... but they can. Sometimes they need direct support (including financial support), usually they need friendship and psychological support - as it was the most lacking thing in their homes.
Our action is possible thanks to people, who offer their time and support in different forms. I cannot name all of them, but would like to express my gratitude specially towards Michael Isaac - for the support of the initiative, to Monika Dublicka and Karina Wietrak for their continuous support, to Danka Butkiewicz, Bogusia and Adam Karolczyk, Krzysztof and all friends from the Zełwągi Association for the fantastic help on the spot, in Zełwągi, to Dominik Łyżwiński for organising a book collection and participation in the action, to Tomek Odintsov for participation and the "Santa Claus" role, to Marcin Abramek and Mariusz Izdebski for all their help on the spot.
So - if anybody is willing to support our action in the future, has creative ideas on how to develop it and bring assistance in different forms, or wonders wheher can help somebody, but does not know exactly how - send me a message.
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