THEIR ROYAL HIGHNESSES HOSTED A GALA CHARITY DINNER JOINTLY WITH VLADE AND SNEZANA DIVAC, FOR THE BENEFIT OF REFUGEES IN SERBIA

Belgrade, 21 September – Their Royal Highnesses Crown Prince Alexander II and Crown Princess Katherine hosted tonight a gala charity dinner celebrating basketball champion Divac’s farewell to professional career and the beginning of a humanitarian action of raising funds for permanent housing solutions for refugees in Serbia.

In addition to the presence of many renowned guests from the world of business, politics, education, culture and diplomacy, the event was also attended by a stellar team of NBA stars such as Chris Webber, Sasa Vujačić, Scott Pollard, Predrag Stojaković, Bobby Jackson, Tony Kukoč, Glen Rice, Sarunas Marciulionis, and Panayotis Fasulas.

Their Royal Highnesses jointly with the Divac couple wished to raise public awareness about the enormous need for housing solutions for refugees in Serbia whose tragic fate is often forgotten.

With this event, Crown Prince Alexander and Crown Princess Katherine wished to communicate the urgency for actualization of such a humanitarian event which is intended to help all those who cannot help themselves, as they have lost their loved ones and their posessions in the tragedy of Yugoslavia.

Addressing those present, the Crown Prince said: „This event is both happy and sad. Happy, because we are paying tribute to a successful sports career of Vlade Divac, and sad because we are saying farewell to it. What is greater than being the ambassador of good will among men, and what is harder to preserve than the good will among peoples.

My wife Crown Princess Katherine, my family and I are very proud that we can host, in our home, the beginning of a new action – the building of homes for the refugees in Serbia.

We express our thanks to all of you, especially the celebrated champions of world and domestic sports, who are today giving support to a noble project and demonstrating friendship and respect for a man who has given all of us so many moments of happiness and pride”.

A humanitarian auction followed. There were eight auctions: for the NBA all-star weekend, Euro-league Final Four basketball, football match Real Madrid-Barcelona, football match Chelsea – Manchester United, football match Inter-Milan, then Kobe Bryant’s signed jersey, Andrei Kirilenko’s signed jersey, and Novak Djokovic’s signed tennis racquet. In total, 70,000 euros were raised. The most successful auctions were Kobe Bryant’s signed jersey and Novak Djokovic’s tennis racquet, both auctioned for 16,000 euros each.

In addition, Their Royal Highnesses will continue their humanitarian efforts on 24 September, together with the Divac couple, when they will be travelling to Greece and organizing aid for the brotherly people of Greece who suffered casualties during the recent forest fires that have struck Greece in the past month.