Sponsor Bingo Lottery devotes special attention to children

More than 47 million euros donated to health and human service charities

Amsterdam/Utrecht, 5 February 2010
Earlier this afternoon, during its traditional 'Goed Geld Gala' charity ball, the Sponsor Bingo Lottery announced the sums to be donated to health and human service organisations. Once again, thanks to its 500,000 members, the Sponsor Bingo Lottery is able to support a growing number of beneficiaries. More than 40 organisations, including Villa Pardoes - a vacation facility for children with life-threatening diseases, Stichting Steun Emma Kinderziekenhuis – which endeavours to make children’s time in hospital as pleasant as possible, and Scouting Nederland - the national Scout organisation, will receive a donation.

In 2009 the Sponsor Bingo Lottery received 94,038,589 euros in the form of subscription fees. Half of this sum – a total of 47,019,294 euros - will be donated to health and human service charities. Speaking during the Goed Geld Gala, Dutch State Secretary for Health, Welfare and Sport, Jet Bussemaker, said “It’s wonderful that there are so many organisations that work to improve welfare and care in the Netherlands and that these organisations are able to receive money from the Sponsor Bingo Lottery.”

Support for ill and underprivileged children

Ambassador Krajicek and Paul Rosemöller to host the Sponsor Bingo Lottery Gala

Scouting Nederland - the national Scout association - is the largest youth organisation in the Netherlands with more than 112,000 members. The organisation is celebrating its centenary in 2010. With the donation of 200,000 euros from the Sponsor Bingo Lottery over a period of several years, Scouting Nederland will be able to organise more activities for young people and expand its membership, mainly by inviting more children from underprivileged neighbourhoods to join the movement.

There are 350,000 children with a chronic illness in the Netherlands. Stichting Steun Emma Kinderziekenhuis endeavours to make the time that children and their parents spend at the Emma Kinderziekenhuis children’s hospital as pleasant and ‘normal’ as possible. The donation of 280,000 euros from the Sponsor Bingo Lottery will be used to build two classrooms and equip a multifunctional information and instruction centre, where parents and children will learn to carry out medical procedures.

Four hundred children with a life-threatening illness have been able to enjoy a free week-long holiday at Villa Pardoes, a specially adapted holiday facility near the Efteling theme park, together with their parents and siblings every year since the year 2000. After 10 years of intensive use, the bungalows that the families stay in are now in need of renovation. The donation from the Sponsor Bingo Lottery will be used to refurbish the bungalows so Villa Pardoes can continue to offer the families an all-expenses paid week’s holiday in years to come.

Members play for their own club

More than 45% of the money distributed by the lottery was donated to clubs and associations chosen by the members of the lottery. Over 3% more of the members than last year chose to purchase specially dedicated lottery tickets for their own club, organisation or association – an option that is becoming increasingly popular. More than 3,200 organisations will receive a specially dedicated donation from the Sponsor Bingo Lottery. These donations range from several thousand euros, to hundreds of thousand of euros and even millions of euros. Hence the CliniClowns Foundation, which arranges for clowns to entertain children who are ill, received a sum of almost 270,000 euros, and the VUmc Cancer Center in Amsterdam has received more than 4.4 million euros to date.