Viktor Petrenko Hosts Charity Skating Show
With Figure Skating's Brightest Stars
© CHILDRENOFCHORNOBYL.ORG
Viktor Petrenko with Brian Boitano
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Olympic Champion, Viktor Petrenko will host 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. VIKTORY FOR KIDS will be held at the Danbury Ice Arena in Danbury, CT on Saturday, October 4
th
at 7:00 pm and will feature 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. In addition to 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
will also feature 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 dollars worth of medical technology and humanitarian aid to children's hospitals and orphanages in Ukraine. Tickets will go on sale beginning August 1
st
at the Danbury Ice Arena 203-794-1704.