Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy - The Great Orchestra of Festive Aid

The Wielka Orkiestra Świątecznej Pomocy is a Polish charitable organisation which puts on free, open-air, public concerts and rock gigs on one Sunday every January in towns all over Poland, to raise money for babies with health problems and for their mothers.

It is very popular, raises millions, and is a very, very good thing.

This year, as usual, the Walruses (Morsy), who are groups of winter swimmers,  collected money on Baltic beaches from people who had come to watch them swim.

The group I belong to raised in one hour over 1,400 złoty - about 3 weeks earnings for an average worker.

Here are some members collecting from happy donors - before the swim. The red heart stickers are what you get for contributing.

Obviously, after extracting money, and in the presence of the local press, you can't escape swimming. For the record, the water temperature was +2.8 Celsius, and the air +1 Celsius. Disappointingly warm - we stayed in the water for about 15 minutes.

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