The 8th Teddy Bear Charity Auction is on its way: the organisers intend to open a disabled friendly restaurant from the receipts.
As Szeretlek Magyarország claims, the teddy bears and personal items of 183 Hungarian and foreign celebrities were auctioned in the past few years in order to support the own disabled-friendly workspace of Adopt a Teddy Bear Foundation in the center of Budapest, opened in 2016. 11 disabled people works at Premier Kultcafé: autists, people with Down’s syndrome, mentally handicapped, and deaf as well. The foundation wants to create new workplaces.
This year, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Antonio Banderas offered to help the disabled with their signed teddies.
It was also a great sensation when Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling, who were shooting Blade Runner 2049 in Hungary in 2016, joined the initiative. Their offers were sold for HUF 4,000,000 and 1,000,000 (approximately EUR 12,412 + 3,103). Last year, there were three Hollywood stars who took part in the initiative, namely Jennifer Lawrence, Jamie Foxx and Ashton Kutcher. They gave HUF 2,650,000 (EUR 8,223) altogether by selling their teddy bears.
For the first time in the history of Adopt a Teddy Bear Foundation, Roberto Carlos, legend of Real Madrid, and his family supports the initiative as well. The offered real treasures: a Real Madrid magazine signed by R.C., a pair of unique football boots made for his half Hungarian son, Christofer.
This time all the existing records might be broken, the main goal is to open a new restaurant.
The most successful auction was last year with its 25 million forints of income, when the teddies of Attila Dargay, András Lovasi (singer), and Tibor Nyilasi (former football player, Hungarian International) were sold for 3-3 million forints. The most expensive offer was for Imre Kertész Nobel laureate author’s teddy and a signed copy of his novel, Sorstalanság (Fatelessness), with 3.7 million forints (EUR 11,161). If the foundation breaks this record, they will get closer to their aim of opening a restaurant to employ disabled people.
12 Hungarian celebrities were asked to help the foundation and operation of the biggest European disabled-friendly social and cultural space. Premier Kultcafé opened three years ago, and 11 disabled people work here currently: autists, people with Down’s syndrome, physically and mentally ill, and deaf as well. The foundation awaits every contributor who is fully dedicated to the purpose of the campaign.
They full list of contributing celebrities are the following:
Benedek Miklós (Kossuth Award-winning actor, director), Csaba Böjte (Franciscan monk, founder of Dévai Szent Ferenc Foundation), Károly Eperjes (Kossuth Award-winning award, eternal member of the Troupe of Immortals), Zoltán Gera (Hungarian International with 97 appearances), Ádám Horváth (Kossuth, Erkel Ferenc and Balázs Béla Award-winning director), Tamás Jordán (Kossuth Award-winning actor and director, theatre manager), Előd juhász (music historian, tv and radio presenter), János Latorcai and his wife, Aranka (politician, vice-president of the national assembly, his wife is an iconographer), Sándor Lukács (Kossuth Award-winning actor), Andor Lukáts (Kossuth Award-winning actor and director, stage manager), Balázs Taróczy (tennis player), Andrea Temesvári (Grand Slam winning tennis player), Antonio Banderas (Spanish actor), Roberto Carlos and Cristofer Da Silva Horváth (Brazilian football player and his son), Arnold Schwarzenegger (Golden Globe Award winning actor)
In Hungary only 10-15% of the disabled are employed; most of them feel socially excluded because of that. However, there are always exceptions: earlier we wrote about a company employing disabled people. Learn more about Nagy Lépés here.
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