July
18, 2003
Viktory
for Kids
Petrenko
hosts charity skating show
with figure skating's brightest stars
See
photos from the special evening
Olympic
Champion, Viktor Petrenko hosted an all-star cast
of Olympic Figure Skaters in a charity skating gala,
VIKTORY FOR KIDS, to benefit children who are still
being affected by the 1986 nuclear explosion in Chornobyl,
Ukraine.
 |
| Viktor
Petrenko |
VIKTORY
FOR KIDS was held at the Danbury Ice Arena in Danbury,
CT on Saturday, October 4 at 7 p.m. and featured skating’s
brightest stars including; Olympic Champion Brian
Boitano, Olympic Pairs Champions Oksana Kazakova &
Artur Dmitriev, two-time Olympic Pairs Champion Ekaterina
Gordeeva, Olympic Champion Illia Kulik, Olympic Silver
Medalist Evgeni Plushenko, Olympic Bronze Medalist
Timothy Goebel, World Silver Medalist Elena Sokolova,
Ukrainian National Ice Dance Champions Elena Grushina
& Ruslan Goncharov and the Acrobatic team of Vladimir
Besedin & Oleskiy Polischuk.
Viktor
Petrenko initiated the VIKTORY FOR KIDS campaign in 2001
in a broad-based effort to bring life-saving relief to his
homeland. The nuclear disaster in Chornobyl still devastates
the lives of people in Ukraine and causing the country to
have one of the highest infant mortality rates in Europe.
The
first VIKTORY FOR KIDS raised over $100,000 and the funds
were used to build a neonatal intensive care unit in the
Children’s Hospital in Viktor Petrenko’s hometown
of Odessa, Ukraine.
This
year the VIKTORY FOR KIDS is working to provide training
and new technology to save children, who are born with congenital
heart defects, which is averaging over 6,000 per year in
Ukraine, and expanding cancer screening programs for both
adults and children from the contaminated zones.
“It
is
an honor for me to be able to give something back to my
home country,” Petrenko said. “Being a father,
I understand the importance of healthcare for all children
and hope to give that opportunity to the children of Ukraine.
I am also grateful to my friends in figure skating, who
have dedicated their efforts to this cause,” he added.
VIKTORY
FOR KIDS also featured a VIP fundraising reception
with a celebrity auction at the Colorado Brewery and
Steakhouse in Danbury. All proceeds from the event
will benefit the Children of Chornobyl Relief Fund
(CCRF), an award winning charity that has delivered
over $50 million in medical technology and humanitarian
aid to children’s hospitals and orphanages in
Ukraine.
