The former colleague from UniCredit Bulbank Snezhanka Yovcheva [1], who retired two years ago, received the prestigious award Ambassador of Volunteering at the Annual awards THE HEROES 2017 of the largest platform for volunteering in BulgariaTimeHeroes.org. Along with her, the student Tino Penchev was deservedly distinguished in the same category.

The jury of THE HEROES 2017 is looking for deeds and practices that are inspiring, brave, innovatory, an expression of an activity and position that are beneficial for the community, or for an example of a significant positive effect on a particular cause or community.

Levon Hampartzoumian, Chairman of the Management Board and Chief Executive Officer of UniCredit Bulbank, presented the awards to the winners in the Ambassador category.

The people that I am honored to award as Ambassadors of volunteering show clearly that age does not matter when it comes to this activity.  I congratulate them cordially.  Volunteers make the world a better place to live,” said Levon Hampartzoumian.

“My work as a volunteer began in the National Volunteer Programme of UniCredit Bulbank.  Volunteering helped me during the transition from active work to a calmer life of a pensioner.   This is the most suitable time to become a volunteer:  At this point we have already fulfilled all other life obligations that we have.  I wish that next year there will be not only young people at the volunteer awards ceremony, but also more gray-haired people,” said Snezhanka Yovcheva when receiving the award.  It's interesting to note that the inspiring activity of Snezhanka Yovcheva is not limited to volunteering.  In addition, she is once again a university student and currently studying at the Philosophy Faculty.

Snezhanka Yovcheva has an economics PhD and is a valuable specialist “Human resources”. She retired two years ago.  Shezhanka is a volunteer by nature and doing nothing has never even crossed her mind.  She has started helping at the office of the I Can Too Foundation twice a week.  She has also helped at the storehouse of Bulgarian Food Bank where, together with other volunteers, she has sorted fruit, vegetables and package food to support people in need.  With her personal example and infectious enthusiasm to share the idea of volunteering with people in active retirement age, Snezhanka Yovcheva has become one of the ambassadors of the Volunteer's Phone, launched by TimeHeroes precisely for this purpose. 

Tino Penchev has been a volunteer at the Children's museum Muzeiko for a year and a half starting at the age of fifteen.  He has already spent 200 hours volunteering and has participated with enthusiasm and authority - from explaining physics phenomena to children to planting petunias. According to TimeHeroes, whenever Tino makes a statement he supports it with arguments. He is not only a valuable element in the organization of the volunteering activity, but also in the whole process at the children's museum.  Tino has undertaken the difficult task of communicating science to others, and he is also putting extraordinary energy into explaining the meaning of volunteering to his peers. Parents often support their children to become volunteers at Muzeiko precisely after a conversation with Tino.

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[1] UniCredit Bulbank is a partner of the initiative The Heroes 2017.  Following the good practices, the bank does not take part in initiatives as a sponsor if at the same time it applies for awards.  In this case we made a decision to support the ceremony first of all, because we believe in the importance of such activities and their benefit for society, second, because Snezhanka is no longer an employee of the bank and has not been nominated on behalf of the bank, and third, because her activity had been noticed by TimeHeroes.org long before we were addressed with a proposal for partnership of the awards: information about Snezhanka from the end of 2016 http://blog.timeheroes.org/post/154157826402/za-dobrite-dela-niama-pensionirane .

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Additional media information:

Victoria Blajeva, tel +359 (0) 2 9264 993, wjlj/ebwjepwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Beatris Nikolova, tel +359 (0) 2 9232 528, cfbusjt/ojlpmpwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch

Ekaterina Ancheva, tel +359 894 518 193 , flbufsjob/bodifwbAvojdsfejuhspvq/ch