Lars Bratt, Solstickan Award winner 2010
Lars Bratt, founder of the "The Granddad Programme", has been awarded this year's Solstickan Award of 100,000 SEK based on the following rationale: "For an initiative in the spirit of the UN Convention on the Rights of Children by providing specially trained adult role models, mostly to primary schools, in the form of supportive "Granddads" or "Grannies", strengthening children's self-esteem and social skills and enhancing the teaching environment."
The Solstickan Award is awarded to people who have provided an extraordinary personal input – preferably outside the framework of their ordinary occupation – in areas deemed compatible with the Foundation’s charter.
548,988 SEK awarded to county committees
The Annual Meeting of the Foundation announced that Solstickan’s committees are to share 548,988 SEK during the year. Among others,the following organizations and associations were to receive grants:
- The children’s association, Föreningen Maskrosbarn, is granted 30,000 SEK for summer camp activities for sixty youths who live with a psychiatrically ill parent, or with one that suffers from substance abuse.
- Sveriges Dövas hästklubb (Swedish Horse Club for the Deaf) is granted 15,000 SEK for the association’s riding camps, weekend riding camps, Youth Leader Courses and the activities of the association in 2010.
- Skota Hem (sailing activities for the functionally disabled) was granted 40,000 SEK for the purchase of a boat, Access 2.3, for sailing activities for children and youths with functional disabilities.
- “Clownetterna” were granted 30,000 SEK for clown performances in children’s hospitals.
- “Glädjeverkstan” was granted 100,000 SEK for activities involving clown visits to the Astrid Lindgren Children’s Hospital in 2010.
- The Millesgården Foundation was granted 50,000 SEK for conducting pedagogic art activities for children and youths with autism and Asperger syndrome.
The Foundation received more than 1.3 million SEK
A share of the sales price of each product sold under the Swedish Match brand, Solstickan, is donated to the Solstickan Foundation. Since 1936, some 10 billion boxes of matches have been sold in Sweden, entailing more than 100 million SEK for the Foundation since its inception. The recent Annual General Meeting of the Foundation was told that the many thousands of small öre increments from the sale of matches in 2009, plus donations, had generated more than 1.3 million SEK.
