Press Release from RIBI

TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE
Prize money presented to Russian family as Rotary charity helium balloon ends up 2000 miles away.

7th February 2002

When 14-year old Dima Skvortsov went out to play in the garden of his home in Kum’ja, a small village in the republic of Mari El, 500 miles to the east of Moscow, in July 2000, he could not have known what changes it would bring to the life of his family.

In the corner of his garden Dima found a partly inflated balloon with a strange label attached to it. Sergei, Dima’s father and peasant farmer took the label to the local Schoolteacher who translated the text and told Sergei that the balloon had been sent by the Luton North Rotary Club in England and was a sort of competition. She told Sergei that if he sent the label back to the Rotary Club in England they promised to send him £50 sterling (about 2400 roubles), which was what Sergei would normally earn in about 4 months. The teacher helped Sergei to fill in the label so that he could return it to the stated address.

The helium-filled balloon had been launched by the Luton North Rotary Club in June that year (2000) as one of 6000 balloons released from a field in Toddington, Bedfordshire, to raise money for their charitable community work. Local people had been invited to sponsor a Balloon for £1, and there was a prize of a £1000 holiday for the sponsor of the balloon which travelled the furthest. On the ticket was the offer of a £50 reward to the finder of the winning balloon, payable when they returned the label to the Luton North Rotary Club.

After a few weeks, reports started to come in of balloons turning up in Holland, Norway, and Sweden. Then one was reported from Estonia and everyone thought that would be the winner. When Sergei’s ticket turned up, nobody could believe that a balloon could have travelled as far as Russia.

The main problem was getting the money to Sergei, he didn’t have a bank account and the Rotary club thought that it would be too risky to send the money in the post. Eventually a member of the Rotary Club found a contact in the Moscow Narodny Bank in London who said that they could help to get the money through safely.

In January 2002, the Club received an email from a Russian news web-site, saying that the story had captivated the entire Russian media. Daily interchanges began to take place between the editor of NisRevue, Svetlana Kukina and Roger Munday of the club. The Russian media wanted a formal presentation to take place, and so Alexei Dorofeev the director of Monsnarbank invited the family for a presentation at his bank.

Further donations were given to the family from the bank, Alexei personally, Svetlana Kukina and Nizhny Novgorod Information Networks, a Russian internet company. The total prize to the Skvortsov family was 6800 roubles, worth nearly a year’s income to them. The prize was eventually given to Sergei at a presentation in the offices of Mosnarbank on 15th January this year (2002). The whole Skvortsov family made the trip from Kum’ja especially for the occasion, and Sergei is now a famous figure in Russia, along with the Luton North Rotary Club, and has even appeared on Russian TV to relate his adventure and good fortune.

Asked if he had ever doubted that he would get his prize and whether he counted his prize accidental, Sergei replied “I always trusted. I have been troubled …and God has awarded this prize to me"

Further Detail

For further details about this press release, please contact Judith Diment, HBL Media on: 01628 418133 or 07860 162313, or Roger Munday, Luton North Rotary Club on 07714 766318. A more detailed account of the story is available

Photographs available

Editors Notes

1. Rotary is an organisation of businesses and professional persons united world-wide, who provide humanitarian service, encourage high ethical standards in all vocations and help to build goodwill and peace in the world. Their motto is: Service above Self

2. For general information on Rotary in your area, contact the local Rotary Club President. Details from Robin Freeman: 01789 765411