The first part of the Bodi Totalno Cool (Be Totally Cool) charity campaign closed today, 5 February 2009. As part of the campaign, BTC d.d. (as a donor and with the help of visitors to BTC City), readers of Slovenske novice (through the Ivan Kramberger Charity Fund) and pet clinic Prva K collected funds to purchase and train a labrador to assist people with special needs. The organizers used the collected funds to train a labrador named Dina, who today became a service dog of quadriplegic Igor Orel.

Magazine Moj pes, in collaboration with the Institute for Rehabilitation of Disabled People of the Republic of Slovenia and the Quadriplegic Association of Slovenia, has been organizing the charity campaign Pomagajmo prijatelju (Let’s Help a Friend) for 14 years. Their work involves training service dogs to help people with special needs. Thus far they have provided dogs to twelve people, among them paraplegics, quadriplegics, people with cerebral palsy and people with multiple sclerosis. BTC, Slovenske novice and pet clinic Prva K joined this campaign with the slogan Bodi Totalno Cool in pomagaj prijatelju (Be Totally Cool and Help a Friend) in 2008.

The labrador Dina successfully completed training and passed the performance test, and under the guidance of professional trainer Maja Golob she also passed Exam 1, making her the only one to satisfy the conditions to begin work with a disabled person. Dina will now keep Igor Orel, a quadriplegic from Fužine na Dolenjskem, company and will soon become an assistance dog.

“The costs of training and medical procedures for a service dog amount to 7400 euros. Everyone participating in the charity campaign believed it would be successful, and we plan to continue with the campaign. In this way we also wish to encourage those institutions that provide health care for disabled people to also enable people in wheelchairs to have a service dog, as currently only blind people have the right to have a service dog in Slovenia,” says Maja Oven, Director of Market Communications and Public Relations at BTC d.d..

Dina is the thirteenth assistance dog helping disabled people in wheelchairs that has been trained as part of the campaign organized by the magazine Moj pes. These dogs must perform numerous practical tasks to help the disabled person, as well as be psychologically balanced and friendly within their environment as they also have beneficial therapeutic effects on their owners.

Everyone can participate in the Bodi Totalno Cool campaign in several ways: by buying products from the special Bodi Totalno Cool collection sold at the Info Point in Hall A in BTC City, by donating money at the boxes throughout the BTC City area or with a money transfer to the current account of the Ivan Kramberger Fund (current account number 02922-0019831742, transaction reference 7089 with the heading: Bodi Totalno Cool in pomagaj prijatelju).

For further information contact:

BTC, d.d., Ljubljana, Maja Oven, Director of Market Communications and Public Relations, e-mail: maja.oven@btc.si