That’s amazing that the 31st Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity is just around the corner! This year the event will be held under the slogan “Live healthy in a healthy world” during which we want to win against sepsis! While preparing for the next Grand Finale, we look back and recall the beginnings of the GOCC Finales.
You can read about the history of the GOCC Foundation here!
The idea for the Grand Finales of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, which has become a permanent part of the landscape of the Polish winter season, was created during Jurek Owsiak's TV program “Róbta co chceta, czyli rock'n'rollowa jazda bez trzymanki” [Eng. “Dae what yer want, rock'n'roll rollercoaster”]. The first Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity was organized in response to the medical devices' shortage in the Warsaw children’s hospital – Centrum Zdrowia Dziecka.
The event gained the patronage of Polish public TV broadcaster – Telewizja Polska, which reported the whole event live on air. It was in the TVP studio, at Woronicza Street in Warsaw, where Jurek Owsiak, Agata Młynarska and Walter Chełstowski hosted the first Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity. The whole organization of the event was supported by groups of volunteers, Polish scouts and people of good heart.
The goal of the 1st Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity was to help in the treatment of heart diseases of the youngest patients. During the event, the amount of PLN 3,773,443.38 was collected (over 37 billion Old Polish Zlotys).
Thanks to the funds collected during the 1st Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, the Foundation managed to purchase:
On March 2, 1993, the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity Foundation was registered. Its founders are Jerzy Owsiak, Lidia Niedźwiedzka-Owsiak, Bohdan Maruszewski, Piotr Burczyński, Paweł Januszewicz, Walter Chełstowski, Beata Bethke.
Since then, the Foundation has supported many different fields of medicine, i.a. pediatric oncology, neonatology, orthopaedics, traumatology, psychiatry and geriatrics. Since its beginnings, the GOCC has collected over PLN 1.75 billion to support Polish medicine and purchased nearly 70,000 devices. From the very beginning, the Foundation of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity has been an initiative based on trust, which is why it is so essential for the GOCC to present agreements and provide detailed information on how the charity spends funds obtained from the society. The key element of our work is the way of purchasing medical devices – the Foundation buys medical devices through Open Tenders, which guarantees the selection of the best devices. We consider contracts to be completed only when the devices are installed in medical facilities and the staff is trained. It is also worth remembering that the GOCC often buys the most modern equipment, which requires not only staff training but also preparation of the medical facilities.
In addition to purchasing medical equipment, which is the implementation of the objectives of the Grand Finale, the GOCC runs year-round medical programmes. A list of all medical and educational programmes run by the GOCC Foundation can be found here!
During the first Grand Finales of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity, donations were collected only using traditional methods, and instead of identical cardboard collection boxes, volunteers collected money with various types of containers and bags.
The 31st Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity is just around the corner! For years, we have been improving the available forms of electronic payments to make supporting the Grand Finale and our other actions accessible and simple. In addition to joining one of the International Collection Centres and raising money as a regular volunteer, there are other forms of helping and supporting the goal of the 31st Grand Finale of the Great Orchestra of Christmas Charity. If you want to join our fight against sepsis, you can use various electronic forms available straight away:
All forms of support for the Grand Finale can be found on this page.
Lidia Niedźwiedzka-Owsiak, who is the director of the medical division of the GOCC Foundation, was awarded an Honoris Causa at the Poznań University of Medical Sciences. This recognition was given in appreciation of her commitment to upholding the highest standards in healthcare.
The registration of Collection Centres, i.e. hubs of volunteers organizing the Grand Finale events for their local community, is now over. Collection Centres will be actively participating in the 32nd Grand Finale fundraiser across Poland and in 101 locations around the world!
Warsaw, Poland, the world! The enthusiasm which exploded in our country in 1993 has reached the most distant corners of the world in a flash. Already during the very first Grand Finale, we were present across the ocean!
