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Christmas Present for Greek NGO “To Hamogelo tou Paidiou” from Düsseldorf

By Aspasia Zontanou
On December 16th, 2011, the traditional Christmas Party of the Greeks in Düsseldorf celebrated its 10th anniversary.

The NH-Hotel was packed with 250 people, including Greeks, Germans, Italians, Spaniards, and other ethnicities, waiting excitedly for the annual festivities: live Greek and classical music, good food and wine, and a tombola.

It all began ten years ago when Christos Giaxidis thought to arrange a get-together with his Greek coworkers at Vodafone Düsseldorf. What he did not expect was this charity event to become one of the most popular Christmas parties in the Greek community of Düsseldorf and its environs.

This year’s event was dominated by the wish of all participants to help the Greek nonprofit-organization “To Hamogelo tou Paidiou” (child’s smile). In his emotional speech, Christos Giaxidis emphasized how important it is to support an NGO like “To Hamogelo tou Paidiou” in times of austerity in Greece, an organization which helps and assists children by giving them shelter, love, appreciation, and advocating for their rights.

Some highlights of the evening were the outstanding performance of classical music duo Aciano, Marianna Zorba and her husband Manolis Manouselis, who represented Greece in the Eurovision Song Contest in 1997 with the song “Horepse”, and the Greek band “Orion” interpreting rembetiko songs and Greek folk music. The party went on even after midnight with lots of singing and dancing to Greek music. The atmosphere was great and the proceeds of the raffle totaled 5.000 euros.

500 Euro were donated to a German NGO, and 4.500 to “The Hamogelo tou Paidiou”, and another 1.700 obtained by the sale of kourabiedes (Greek sweets) were given to a poor Greek family.

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