Fundraising campaign: BILLA hands over 1,000 Santa Claus bags to seriously ill and socially disadvantaged children

6th December, the day of St. Nicholas, is a special day, especially for the little ones: stockings and boots filled with chocolate and nuts make children's eyes shine and bring a lot of joy all over Austria. To surprise seriously ill and socially disadvantaged children on this day, the BILLA family has come up with something special: In 31 selected BILLA and BILLA PLUS stores in the 6th, 7th, 8th, 12th and 15th districts of Vienna, St. Nicholas bags filled with sweets were offered to customers from the 22nd to the 27th of November. Thanks to the support of the customers, about 1,000 bags were collected together with BILLA. A part of it will be donated to the St. Anna Children's Hospital and the University Clinic for Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. Volkshilfe Wien also receives a part of the St. Nicholas sacks and distributes them to children's and young people's residential communities as well as to children of former homeless families. The remaining bags will go to unaccompanied underage refugees of the Connection People project of Asylum Coordination Austria. 

"I am very proud of our employees who lovingly filled and packed the St. Nicholas bags with chocolate and nuts in the stores. The fundraising campaign was a complete success. Thanks to our customers, we can now hand over around 1,000 sacks. Now we can bring joy to seriously ill children and those who would not have received any sweets on St. Nicholas Day," says Heidrun Puscher, BILLA regional manager and initiator of the fundraising campaign. 

Focus on the well-being of the child 

St. Anna Children's Hospital was founded in 1837 as the first children's hospital in Austria and treats children and adolescents between the ages of 0 and 18. 

"We are delighted to be able to surprise our young patients on St. Nicholas' Day thanks to the support of BILLA and would like to thank all our customers for bringing a touch of Christmas magic to St. Anna Children's Hospital with their donation," said Barbara Hahn, Director of Nursing. 

The central concern of the AKH Children's Hospital is the treatment of chronically and acutely seriously ill children and adolescents and offers outpatient and inpatient care for all age groups. 

"It is a great pleasure for us to be able to bring a bit of pre-Christmas time to the rooms of our chronically ill children and to thank all our patients for their bravery and the way they deal with their own illness. I would like to emphasise that our focus is on the children and their families and we try to deal with their worries and fears together. At this point I would like to wish all families a blessed and peaceful Christmas," says Susanne Greber-Platzer, Head of the University Hospital for Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.