The biggest adventure of my life - helping a friend to win with the...

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The biggest adventure of my life - helping a friend to win with the cancer

I'm going to write about charity 16 concerts in 8 different clubs, which I organized for my friend, 28.06.13 in Bielsko-Biala in Poland.

_{Here is relation from the concerts. Turn on English subtitles in the settings}

Friend's disease

My friend from the University, Marzena Erm was unlucky enough to get cancer (Hodgkin's lymphoma) at a very young age. She remained optimistic, but the treatment which her doctor suggested was not refunded so suddenly she was forced to collect 50 thousand dollars on her own, which was impossible to achieve without the help of the other people.

She started to write a blog "Rakija - czyli jak upijam sie zyciem". She was describing there her illness and all the problems related to it but was doing it in a very unconventional way. Even when she was writing about the worst experiences, she was doing it in a comedian style - Hodgkin, the name of her disease, was presented as the possessive, toxic husband which doesn't want to leave her and makes her life very difficult.

Helping without the money

When I read her blog for the very first time, I was a 24 years old student. I didn't have much money to donate but I really wanted to help somehow. I realized that besides the money, I can offer my time and creativity so I put on auction myself on Allegro (Polish eBay). I offered that for one whole day I can do anything for the person who will offer the biggest amount of money. I could help in cleaning, become a nanny, cook something or just spend some time with another person and talk. I could do anything, except illegal or sexual things. All the money from that auction I was going to send directly to Marzena's account.

My auction became viral. It was shared on social media over 300 times, television and radio stations started to invite me and Marzena to make some interviews.

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_{me making the radio program for RMF.FM}

One of the biggest polish radio stations, RMF.FM won the auction and bought my time for a bit over 3500 USD and made me prepare a live radio program for that money. We were very happy, because every interview, every event was a hope that Marzena will get the money which she needs. People started to donate some money to her, but after few weeks they forgot about her.

Idea with the multiple concerts

Then we decided to make one more event to collect missing money. Marzena wrote on her blog that Hodgkin is like the toxic husband who hurts her and doesn't want to leave, so we decided to make a big "divorce party", divorce her with the illness by collecting the remaining amount to finish her treatment (Kind of word game. It sounds funnier and smarter in Polish)

_{crowd is dancing to one of 16 concerts we organized that day}

Radio which won the auction before, helped us to spread the news. They used their influences to send us to the biggest private TV station in Poland, TVN, where in one of the morning programs we were talking about the future event. National advertisement for free.

_{TV program record - advertising our concerts}

Then we started to look for the volunteers.

Looking for Volunteers

First, we needed to find the bands which would agree to play for free. At the end of the day, we found 16 music bands - some of them were friends of the friends, mostly from the Music Department at the University of Silesia, others texted us after the TV interview. I even motivated my husband who was playing on hurdy-gurdy, to make a folk concert that day. There was also one big star, Janusz Kohut, a very talented pianist, which we visited at his home and asked for help.

_{Janusz Kohut - the biggest star we managed to include}

In the meantime, my University rewarded me for an ethical attitude. At the award ceremony, I met the mayor of Bielsko-Biała and obtained a permit to raise money in public places. Usually, bureaucracy requires a lot of effort to obtain such a permit, and I managed to do it in one conversation. I wanted to take the opportunity so I decided to make the event in that city.

_{Probably making the concerts in the bigger city would be more successful, but clubs were crowded anyway}

Now, in retrospect, I think maybe it was a mistake. Bielsko-Biała is not a very large city. Presumably, we could have raised more money if we had organized concerts in Krakow or Warsaw. Unfortunately, at that point, I was afraid to think so boldly.

We already had the date, place, and bands. The next step was to find some clubs. There was no problem with that. I prepared special volunteer contracts, went with them to Bielsko-Biała, and visited selected clubs. In the vast majority of places, my idea was accepted with a great deal of optimism. Only a few clubs refused to take part in the event.

_{over 100 volunteers helped to organize the event}

With all the data in hand, it was time to prepare the posters. A friend of mine who was a graphic designer took care of it for free. The posters looked like this:

My friend, Justyna Kąkol, offered to help and eventually became a co-organizer of the event. Thanks to her acquaintances, we managed to find a printing house that printed several hundred posters for free. A dozen or so volunteers hung them up in various places throughout the region.
Justyna also found a restaurant that offered a free meal to all musicians and volunteers that day. Over a hundred dinners.

A group of students from the University also offered to organize a short animation show in one of the clubs.

First problems

Two weeks before the event, we had our first crisis. Two acoustics decided not to participate in the event. As the acoustics were also volunteers, I didn't have much opportunity to convince them to stay. I panicked. I only knew one acoustician, but he lived over 400 km from Bielsko-Biała. He also did not have his own equipment.

_{There is no concerts without acoustician}

I contacted him. At first, he said that he could help, but I will have to find the equipment on my own, but after a few days he wrote to me that he had made a few calls - he has the equipment and will help for free. To this day, I am very grateful to him for that.

During the event itself, there were a few problems.

The piano in the club where the biggest star was supposed to play was not in tune. My partner was going to a friend's house and transporting another instrument.
the police arrested one of the volunteers because the officers had not been informed about the event. I had to react and luckily it was fixed very soon.
At the beginning I panicked as there were not too many people in the clubs. People came after few hours though.

_{finding the piano in 45 minutes was one of the biggest problems}

Summary

On that day, we managed to collect PLN 4,000, but several investors heard about Marzena and offered larger payments. Ultimately, the total amount of money raised was PLN 175,000 (45,500 USD).

Honestly, I didn't listen to any concert that night. I ran from one club to the next, checking if everything was fine. They were the most exciting and the most important concerts in my life though.

_{concerts were great. At least that's what I've heard ;)}

Sure, I made a few mistakes, but it's hardly surprising - I was an inexperienced student who was trying to organize something very big. The fact that it worked out was only thanks to the volunteers and friends who were there with me that day.

Thank you for reading,
@papi.mati