Students from Charles University across all faculties have been helping to raise money for refugees from Ukraine. Most recently, students from two medical faculties at Charles University organised a charity hockey match that helped raise hundreds of thousands of crowns in support.
In the past up match-ups have been tense and players have been known to fight for every inch of the ice, but in the case of the charity match on Wednesday this week, rivalry was set aside. Together, med students from two hockey teams – the Motol Pelicans (Second Faculty of Medicine, Charles University) and TRIMED (Third Faculty of Medicine, Charles University) - fielded a team against the Faculty of Science, Charles University at Prague’s Eden Stadium.
“When the war in Ukraine started, we thought we should also try to help in some way,” Alois Burian, the main organiser from the Faculty of Science of Charles University, told Forum. He teamed up with friends from medical faculties he meets during games in the Prague Ice Hockey League and basically put the whole event together within a mere 10 days. Linda Kadlečková and Lukáš Freibauer from the Third Faculty of Medicine of Charles University joined, as did Šimon Tabačko and Martin Kasana from Motol Hospital and that was just the beginning.
The result was a great event attended by almost a thousand fans at the Eden Stadium in Prague’s Vršovice. “I think that everything went well both in terms of organisation and sport. We had a rich programme including competitions during the breaks and the coffers were incredibly full of money after the second period, we even had to add more,” Alois Burian adds.
In addition to paying the admission fee, fans could also contribute by buying small items, and they could also contribute via a QR code to a transparent account. Players from both teams also donated money, and the Dean of the Faculty of Science of Charles University, Professor Jiří Zima, donated CZK 100,000 on behalf of the Faculty of Science of Charles University. This amount plus all the proceeds from the match (96,862 crowns!) will be donated to the Memory of the Nation Fund.
Alois Burian is already thinking about additional benefit events in the future. “We have already talked about organizing something similar at the beginning of the next school year. We would like it to become a nice tradition. Students and faculty representatives might even come together and help in this way on campus,” the Ph. D. student in Physical Geography and Geoecology said.
