This year, the living room of seventy-three-year-old Květoslava Pěčková from Liberec has once again been transformed into a warehouse and a place where Christmas presents are sorted and wrapped for dozens of children from orphanages in the Liberec and Ústí nad Labem regions. Pěčková founded the Christmas Tree of Fulfilled Wishes event for these children back in 1998, and since then, with the help of small donors and companies, she has made thousands of children’s dreams come true.
The event was not stopped by the coronavirus and is being held again this year in Liberec and for the first time in Turnov. People can choose any of more than four hundred tickets with a child’s wish at the Christmas tree and then make it come true by buying a specific gift.
This year, the Liberec tree has moved to the Plaza shopping gallery in the center of Liberec, just a few steps from the historic Liberec Town Hall. This year, the event grants wish to children from twelve orphanages in North Bohemia.
Dolls no longer work
According to the organizer, advertising also has an impact on many wishes. Thanks to it, children’s wishes used to be dominated by chou-chou dolls, which imitate a real baby, or by the Carolina doll. “But nowadays, in the age of mobile phones, computers, and tablets, children’s interests are elsewhere, “the senior said.
Donors who grant children’s wishes regularly return, according to the senior. She is especially pleased when one of the children who donated initially to her is among them.
The senior travel to the tree every day and then sorts and wraps the presents at home
“Each child has a numerical code, and we check off and sort the boxes according to those numbers so that every child has a gift,” she said. People were allowed to bring gifts until Sunday, December 19, after which the directors of the orphanages began taking them. Children have no idea who gave them the gifts. They got their gifts from Santa Claus,” Pěčková said.