Jerzy Owsiak announced the final result of the 32nd Grand Finale

Today’s press conference organized to summarize the 32nd Grand Finale took place at the PGE Narodowy. On 28 January, all the enthusiasts of the GOCC Foundation met at the PGE Narodowy meadows, where the Grand Finale's partners' camp and the GOCC TV studio were located.

Today’s press conference was graced by the presence of Rafał Trzaskowski, the mayor of Warsaw, who has actively supported the GOCC’s mission for years. Sławomir Nitras, the Minister of Sport and Tourism, who decided to take the 18th “Get Even with Diabetes” Run under the Ministry's patronage also joined the event. Furthermore, the Minister has decided to support the organization of sporting activities during the 30th Pol’and’Rock Festival.  Last but not least, Katarzyna Lubnauer, the Secretary of State at the Ministry of Education, came up the stage. The Ministry supported the idea of implementing the CPR for Schools Programme designed by the GOCC Foundation at elementary schools across the country. 

The press conference ended with a musical surprise by the project “Orkiestra Dorosłe Dzieci”. Jurek Owsiak announced that the band joins the line-up of the 30th Most Beautiful Festival in the World.

After the consolidation of all the activities carried out by the GOCC Foundation and the GOCC Collection Centres during the 32nd Grand Finale, Jurek Owsiak announced the final result of the collection - PLN  281,879,118.07! The whole amount is a sum of:.

eCollection Boxes - online Collection Boxes powered by Mastercard, once again turned out to be the most popular form of support for the 32nd Grand Finale fundraiser’s aim. Volunteers have set up 26,773 eCollection Boxes. As many as 311,272 donors contributed to the online collection. This translates into a total of PLN 21,695,947 raised thanks to this form of support! Charity auctions held at the Allegro platform are yet another form of support enjoying an unwavering popularity. All 278,241 auctions raised a total of PLN 36,452,340.98 for the fund! At the Most Generous Benefactors Auction, bidders competed to win Gold Heart pins and Golden SIM cards. This auction added 7.9 million PLN to the pool! It is half a million more than a year ago!

Thanks to the amazing support of volunteers and local Collection Centres, the Great Orchestra managed to raise PLN 188,399,346.80. This amount covers the collections consolidated by the Collection Centres, online transfers, contactless payments (PLN 57,389,843.20), Collection Centres’ charity auctions, and the GOCC Foundation’s team’s contributions (PLN 18,783,291.60) and eCollection Boxes run by Collection Centres, companies, and volunteers (PLN 12,226,285). The volunteers engaged in the traditional collection raised as much as PLN 112,869,443 which means one volunteer could raise as much as PLN 1,054 on average.

It is worth mentioning that anyone can engage in the GOCC's initiative. Traditionally, the detainees in prisons decided to support the goal of the 32nd Grand Finale by putting their artworks up for charity auctions and donating money to a special bank account set up by the GOCC Foundation, the Ministry of Justice, and the Prison Service. They contributed a total of PLN 63,485.30 to the 32nd Grand Finale fundraiser!

The 32nd Grand Finale was organized on 28 January 2024 under the theme: “Post-pandemic lungs. We play for kids and adults alike!” and was dedicated to raising funds to purchase equipment for diagnosing, monitoring, and rehabilitating pulmonary diseases in both children and adults. The motto for this year's event was: We're all in tune! In the 32nd Grand Finale, 1,685 Collection Centres, including 100 located outside Poland, participated, "playing" with the Orchestra in 23 different countries around the world! As many as 120,000 volunteers participated in the fundraiser collecting funds to colourful cardboard Collection Boxes.

The Summer Blaze event in January also became an opportunity to organize the annual "Get Even with Diabetes" Run by the GOCC Foundation. During its 18th edition this year, 5,000 people ran through the streets of Warsaw wearing distinctive orange T-shirts. Apart from the run in Warsaw, volunteers could also register for a virtual run. The main idea was that anyone could join online and complete the 5 km distance at any time and location between January 22nd and 28th, 2024 to then share the results in a dedicated mobile app with other participants. Those registered for the virtual run covered a distance of 32,080 km!

The central location for all activities in Warsaw was the PGE Narodowy meadow. All enthusiasts of our Orchestra were welcome to join the celebrations there and visit the GOCC TV studio and concert stage, as well as the Orchestra's partners' camp. 

The ultimate result often differs from the initial declaration due to continued online support until the end of February and the consolidation of local fundraisers organized by our Collection Centres. The declared result of the 32nd Grand Finale announced at the end of the day of the fundraiser, amounted to PLN 175,426,813.00! The final result turned out to be PLN 106,452,305 higher!

Why did the GOCC “play” for the “post-pandemic lungs”?

The GOCC Foundation decided on the aim of the upcoming fundraiser after consulting the current medical challenges in the country with the Polish Society of Paediatric Pulmonology. Experts drew attention to the very serious post-pandemic health issues among children and adults. Additionally, the air quality in Poland is worsening, which is causing an increase in the number of people affected by lung diseases. The Foundation would also like to offer its support to the 1,800 patients with cystic fibrosis living in Poland.

For those who pay taxes in Poland there is still time to donate 1.5% of income tax to aid the GOCC Foundation's initiative. The funds raised this way will help the charity keep and develop the highest standards of medical treatment for children. Volunteers' contributions will allow the GOCC to keep working on the national medical programs and pursue the statutory aims of the Foundation!

By April 2024, the GOCC's educational program “CPR for Schools” will have been running for 18 years! The Foundation's efforts have allowed over 3 million schoolchildren from grades 1 to 3 to learn the basics of CPR. As of today, the program has reached nearly 13 thousand public schools and 30 thousand teachers. This translates to about 90% of all elementary schools in Poland.

Thanks to the support offered by the Minister of Education Barbara Nowacka, the beginning of next year will see the official incorporation of a CPR course into the curriculum of elementary education! Over 1500 elementary schools expressed their interest in organizing these classes with the help of the GOCC Foundation, which means that the charity's involvement in the project will now only increase. The first CPR class in the new series was held in Wołomin near Warsaw and allowed to pass the invaluable knowledge of CPR to 30 teachers from 15 local elementary schools. 

When summarizing the 32nd Grand Finale fundraiser, Jerzy Owsiak revealed a bit about the state of preparations for the 30th edition of Pol’and’Rock Festival.

The World’s Most Beautiful audience will once again meet up at the old airport in Czaplinek-Broczyno on August 1st – 3rd 2024 to foster the values of freedom, brotherhood, and rock’nroll (but not just these ones!). The anniversary edition of Pol’and’Rock Festival will feature an array of great bands, including Celkilt, Electric Callboy, Motionless in White, Kasia Kowalska, The Warning, Less Than Jake, Myrath, Clawfinger, Sick Of It All, Flapjack, T.Love, Flogging Molly, and Guano Apes. 

Artists from all over the world are kindly invited to take part in Emerging Bands Competition. The lucky winners will be given the opportunity of joining the line-up of the World’s Most Beautiful Festival and presenting their music to a broad audience. In this year’s edition of the competition, the Foundation has already received 740 applications, including 640 ones from Polish and 100 from international artists – from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Estonia, the Netherlands, Spain, Germany, the UK, Ukraine, the US, Czechia, Ireland, France, Sweden, Hungary, Italy, Malta, Mexico, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Switzerland, Taiwan, Sudan, Morocco, North Macedonia and Brazil.