CBS2NEWS, 07.10.2006.

VIDEO  - http://cbs2chicago.com/seenon/local_story_280085247.html

Serbian Royal Couple Asks For Support In Chicago Chicago Has
Largest Serbian Population Outside Belgrade

“We are all God’s creation,” Crown Princess Katherine said. “We all have to look after each other.”

Suzanne Le Mignot Reporting

(CBS) CHICAGO A royal couple is reaching out to Chicagoans, asking for support for their homeland.

Crown Prince Alexander and Princess Katherine of Serbia recently visited Chicago, which has the largest Serbian population outside of Belgrade, the Serbian capital.

In an exclusive report, CBS 2’s Suzanne Le Mignot talked with the royal couple, about their ties to Chicago.

The crown prince and princess received a warm welcome in Chicago. For Alexander, coming to the Windy City was like returning home, since his oldest son was born in Chicago and he himself used to live in the city.

“In the late 70s; it was very cold then,” Crown Prince Alexander said. “I don’t know what’s happened to your climate,” he added with a chuckle, “but it was very cold, and I was working in insurance brokering.”

The Crown Prince is a blood relative of the British Royal Family. Queen Elizabeth II is his godmother. He recalled an encounter with Chicago’s royalty in the 1950s.

“I visited Mayor (Richard J.) Daley, the mayor’s father, and he was a great man,” Crown Prince Alexander said. “I was very impressed, and it was a fantastic meeting with him.”

Now, the Crown Prince is meeting with the current Mayor Daley and business leaders, seeking investors. His war-ravaged country has a 40 percent unemployment rate.

“We desperately need to create jobs not only in Serbia, but the whole region, because we need each other economically,” he said.

The Crown Prince calls the Sister City/Sister State relationship that Chicago and Illinois share with Serbia a “godsend.”

“We’re looking forward to developing education, culture, business and of course, the medical side,” he said. “We have a lot to learn from you.”

Crown Princess Katherine has spent her time in Chicago raising awareness and money for the Lifeline Humanitarian Organization, the charity she started in 1993.

“We are all God’s creation,” Crown Princess Katherine said. “We all have to look after each other.”

The organization provides food, clothing and medical supplies to war orphans and refugees in the former Yugoslavia. The Crown Princess said the conflict may be over, but the needs of her people live on.

“I don’t want them to feel the world has forgotten them,” she said. “They don’t deserve that. Nobody does.”

The children she visits in orphanages touch her heart the most. Among them, a boy who kept, under his pillow, a candy bar she had given him a month earlier.

“I said, ‘But I thought I gave it to you when I was here before,’” Crown Princess Katherine said. “’He says, ‘You did, but it was the best day of my life when you came to visit me.’”

“All he wants is the memories of the warmth, love, and the care,” Crown Princess Katherine added, choking back tears, “and I believe the world must care about the people in our country.”