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How did the youth organization Kažipot celebrate its 70th anniversary?

What kind of organization is celebrating?

The Kažipot Velenje holiday association has been implementing projects for young people for more than 70 years, which could be divided into the following groups: international cooperation, entertainment, informal education and sports. As part of the last major association project www.nomorewaars.eu, representatives of North and South Korea planted two Friendship Linden Trees in the Peace Park build by members of Kažipot. Our members have planted 7 Friendship Linden Trees in several EU countries and in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Through their hard work, the members also built their own sports park with a climbing wall. We also have a football and hiking section. The members of Kažipot walked 1378 km along the external borders of Slovenia in 60 days as part of the slovenija360.si project. The fact that we have been successful in our past work is also proven by the two awarded Statuses of an Honored association operating in the public interest. More about us at www.kazipot.si

How did we celebrated our 70th anniversary?

It is right and proper that on important anniversaries you look back on the past and make plans for the future. When the association celebrated its 50th anniversary, we celebrated this anniversary in the form of a celebration in big Cultural Center in Velenje, which was also attended by the mayors of the partner cities and numerous representatives of our partner organizations.

On the occasion of our 60th anniversary, we used the money intended for the celebration to build two sports fields in the association’s sports park. We also planned to renovate the park this fall and celebrate our 70th anniversary together with our partners from all over Europe. Due to the August floods in 2023, we have redirected our activities and association reserves to help those who will also be deprived of many things due to the floods and other reasons.

Therefore, we decided to carry out seven smaller project activities, most of which are intended for those in need and those ignored, who for various reasons cannot afford a celebration but would really like and deserve it.

Our ultimate goal was to brighten up one day for at least 70 young people, with at least one of the gifts listed below, which has been distributed in the following project activities:

  1. We provide a prom night for 2 more families who would not otherwise experience it:

We covered most of the costs related to that evening for two (boy and girl) young graduates whose parents could not afford the costs of a prom night. With the help of sponsors and donors, we took care of their dress, shoes, makeup, bouquet, payment of the cost of the ticket, dinner and drinks for the graduate and their parents.

  1. We organized a birthday party for a young person from a socially disadvantaged family who could not afford to pay for the costs of a birthday party for their children, to which they invited their friends. Therefore, we had not only taken care of paying for food and drinks, cake and snacks, but also for a sports and entertainment program.
  2. In those crisis period, parents cannot afford to take their youngsters on vacation. Therefore, during the “potato vacation”, we will take 7 young people on a day trip, a hike with a visit to a local attraction. We will help the class with the most volunteers or those who will complete the greatest number of volunteer hours by providing them with cheaper accommodation on the graduation trip.
  3. We helped two young people to raise their spirits by paying for their recreation expenses in the sport hall. We will provide both of them, as well as the group from activity no. 3, with clothes and everything else needed to participate in the described activities.
  4. We want to emphasize that we are an association that cares about the environment. Among past projects, we would like to highlight the projects: recikliraj-pomagaj.si, 50 trees for the 50th anniversary of Velenje, and the fact that representatives of North and South Korea in Velenje planted their own Friendship Linden Tree in the Peace Park. In memory of our anniversary, we will plant an additional Linden tree.
  5. We had also prepared a photo exhibition that will show the most interesting events from the last 7 decades of the association.

We wanted to have a party that would be thematically coloured and would show the culture, music and way of thinking of the generation that was “young” and active 70-60-50-40-30-20-10 years ago and today. But such a meeting will be our goal for better times (not like in 2023 when in Slovenia we had big floods), when it will be appropriate to hold such a large party. This time, however, we will hold an event with a minimal financial scope. We will thank the most active volunteers and other members important to the activities of the association with a chestnut picnic.

 

On what else are we proud of?

Among the international projects we have implemented, we are particularly proud of the following international activities:

  1. In previous years, we planted the Friendship Lime Tree in the partner city of Vienne (France) on the 45th anniversary of cooperation between our towns.
  2. At the Vienne fair, we actively participated in the tourist promotion of Velenje by producing leaflets with invitations to Velenje.
  3. In the international project Multiculturalism… we also participated with partners from Bosnia and Herzegovina. During that visit, we planted 2 friendship lime trees in the partner city of Istočno novo Sarajevo and near to the Sarajevo Modern History Museum.
  4. A multilingual website was created at the website address www.nomorewars.eu. So far, we have managed to translate it into 6 languages.
  5. In 2018, each delegate from North and South Korea planted their own Friendship Lime Tree in the Peace and Friendship Park (built by the members of the association). That year our members also planted such lime trees in Udine and Doberdob in Italy.
  6. Language course and football course with Italian partners from Sistiano. Our football players participated at tournament in Split (Croatia) and in Plevlja (Montenegro).
  7. That the project we are organizing are interesting, and that our project leaders are a reliable persons, is also confirmed by the signed partnership letters, among which we would like to highlight the School center Velenje and the Municipality of Udine (Italy) and Esslingen am Neckar (Germany), whose mayor personally supports our projects!
  8. For past activities, we have been granted with the status of a Honored Organization in the Public Interest by both the Republic of Slovenia and the Velenje Municipality. For past activities, especially for pacifist international projects, we are also obtaining the status of a Non-Governmental Organization in the field of international cooperation.
  9. In the past two years, we have enabled some young people who would otherwise not be able to afford such hikes to walk the mountain path from Maribor to Ankaran and from there along the southern and eastern borders back to Maribor. You can find out more about this 1378-mile hike through photo blogs at: https://www.slovenija360.si/ and k5hike.eu
  10. We will be happy if you help us achieve our remaining goals about which you can read more at www.kazipot.si

 

How can you help that we implement our goals?

  1. Become our member! Find out how on social media, which you can access via www.kazipot.si
  2. So that we can be equally active in the coming decades, you can help us by donating up to 0.5% of your Slovenian income tax. Do this via e-taxes or send us the attached form (hand it over to our member). https://edavki.durs.si/…/CommonPages/Opdynp/PageD.aspx…

Under the beneficiary, enter: Počitniško društvo Kažipot Velenje, tax number 63987619, and in the space below the percentage, enter 0.5%.