Hello! I am Clara from Grade 10, and this is my first year in the Avenor Christmas Charity Fair Organizational Team. I’m the Coordinator of the Marketing and Communications team.

As you know and probably remember from the past years, the Avenor Christmas Charity Fair has become a tradition at Avenor College. We value this magical event which brings back the charity spirit every Christmas. Every year was amazing and meaningful for us all. It is a privilege for the organizing team formed of high school students, and a joy for the whole Avenor Community.
My sister, Ana-Caterina, is the Coordinator of this project and over the past four years, I have been inspired by her work on this project, and tried to help and support her project as much as I could from the sidelines.

This wonderful tradition started back in 2017, when some students in our school came up with the idea, and every year it has improved, the students have become more involved and we managed to raise more and more money. Last year, because of quarantine, there were some difficulties. But my fellow students and project organizers didn’t want to lose the Christmas spirit and the opportunity to be kind and generous, so they adapted to the situation, and came up with the wonderful idea of raising money through an Avenor Christmas online event – The Avenor Charity Advent Calendar. Every day until Christmas Eve we offered on the Facebook and Instagram pages Christmas-themed virtual surprises in exchange for online donations.
Even though we didn’t raise as much money as in the previous years, when we managed to raise 45 000 RON for the first Children’s Hospital for Pediatric Oncology built in Romania, we were still very proud and thankful for everything!

Work behind the event

This whole event is 100% student lead! I believe that this year, the willingness of the students to participate in organizing the fair has been very clear. This is obviously because it is one of the most anticipated and loved Avenor events, but also because last year, we didn’t get the chance to experience it physically.

This year we have the biggest organizational team ever for this event. The 12th Grade students: Ana-Caterina Ciușcă- the project Coordinator and Tiberiu Frățilă- the project manager, have started out the recruitment process of the organizational team, by sharing a Google Form to the whole high school, and anyone that wanted to take part of the organizing team completed it, by expressing their interest and what they would prefer doing. We now have six departments: the logistics team, the marketing and communications team, the human resources team, the finance team, the photography team and the graphics design team. Each team has two coordinators and six team members.

Every department has a whatsapp group, we have one for all the coordinators and one with the whole high school. We also have a very well structured Google Calendar on which our project managers set dates with our tasks and their deadlines, categorized based on which team is responsible. We also have a Google Drive folder for each department, to which every coordinator has access to. This might as well be a Google sponsored event…it’s not, unfortunately, but we definitely get a lot of use out of it.

Besides all of these online communication methods, we have weekly coordinator meetings, and every department has them as well. Every high school student pours their heart into this, working on their tasks even on weekends or late at night, trying their best to make this event as profitable and fun as it is possible. We really value planning and communication, especially since we only have one month to plan this big two-day event.

Why we do this, our charitable cause:

Around Christmas time, we all become more aware and thankful for everything that we have. We receive but we desire to give as well. We desire to help those that don’t get the same opportunities as us, the same resources, the same love and support. We, the teens of Avenor, want to help the teens of Ferentari.

Everyone who has heard of Ferentari, the neighborhood on the outskirts of Bucharest, has heard of ghettos, drugs and garbage. However, it is also a place full of hopeful people, who want to create a better life for themselves and help others get the opportunities they didn’t have growing up. That was the idea behind PlayHood: a community of young people who combine education with a passion for arts of all kinds: theater, video editing, audio production, creative writing and storytelling. Children from Ferentari have the opportunity to participate in workshops related to arts, but also to learn basic skills such as reading, writing and critical thinking.

Currently, the organization has a new dream, “Studiourile Ferentari”. “Studiourile Ferentari” is a space where the visual arts meet digital education and train the next generation of sound and lighting technicians, actors or professionals in audio-video editing.
Our donations will help them improve this studio, as well as buy winter clothes that will help them prepare for the cold!
We want to help these children choose arts and education, not resort to substance abuse or violence, which usually and unfortunately, is the case for many people with similar backgrounds.
All money spent at our Christmas Fair will be donated to their wonderful organization.

Our Christmas Fair is a place to come and meet up with friends, have fun and eat delicious food, but also make a difference!

We, the Avenor Christmas Charity Fair community, would truly appreciate your contribution for this event and process by sharing our initiative with your family and friends. Your support and generosity towards our charitable cause would be our present for this Christmas. If you want to help, please access this link to donate.

Thank you in advance for your positivity and support! Happy Holidays!

Project managers: Ana-Caterina Ciușcă and Tiberiu Frățilă

Ana-Caterina Ciușcă
Avenor Christmas Charity Fair – Coordinator
e: ana-caterina.ciusca@avenor.ro

Tiberiu Frățilă
Avenor Christmas Charity Fair – Project Manager
e: tiberiu.fratila@avenor.ro

Avenor Christmas Charity Fair
e: avenorcharityfair@gmail.com