The “TV-aksjon” is a big event anywhere in Norway, but in Longyearbyen it is bigger than most other places. It is a charity event created by the Norwegian news platform NRK. In Longyearbyen, it ranges from children knocking on doors to collection money over an open day at school with sales of cake, books, theatre plays and so on to the main event, a charity auction that was held on Sunday (20 October) evening in the culture house.
Private individuals, companies and organisations donated a total of 107 items that were auctioned for a good cause, which this time benefits children with cancer. The good cause is a different one every year.
The “TV-aksjon” in the Culture House in Longyearbyen: an auction supporting a good cause.
The list of items was long and included a good number of very interesting offers. It ranged from small stuff, not necessarily adrenalin-kicking items such as tiepins and cuff links donated by the mining company Store Norske Spitsbergen Kulkompani, over various activities offered by ocal tour operators to exclusive events such as climbing the smoke pipe of the disused coal power plant.
A happy bidder can join the priest on a helicopter flight for a church service at the Polish research station in Hornsund next year for 25,000 kroner.
The probably most exciting sale of the night was the very last item: the fur of a polar bear that was shot last year in Krossfjord. Donated by the Sysselmester, the hammer finally fell at 112,000 kroner (a good 9400 Euro). The hammer in question, by the way, was the famous “Fause-hammer”, donated years ago by Sysselmester Lars Fause after he (Fause) inadvertently had made a hole into a chair leg with an unintended pistol shot. Fause presented himself both honest and humorous, first paying the fine that comes for negligent handling of firearms and then, being auctioneer at a TV aksjon himself years ago, using this hammer that had been crafted from the chair leg in question. This time, the hammer was handled by Ronny Brunvoll, manager of Visit Svalbard.
The polar bear fur was auctioned for 112,000 kroner.
The highest price, however, was paid for a trip to Ny-Ålesund for 10 persons, including flight there and back from Longyearbyen, one night and three course dinner in “Amundsen’s Villa”, then and now representative accommodation for the director of Kings Bay, the state-owned company that owns and runs Ny-Ålesund. The successful bidder put no less than 150,200 kroner on the table. But who wouldn’t love to join on that trip? 🙂
There is some ambition in Longyearbyen to be number one on the list of places regarding donation per capita (resident). Despite of the remarkable sum of 2.5 million kroner, which indeed is a record for Longyearbyen, it wasn’t enough for the number one place of this list, however: this amount corresponds to 1043.62 kroner, less then half of what was given by the community of Rødøy (1139 residents, south of Bodø) with 2311.46 kroner, according to official statistics. Considering absolute numbers, the large cities of Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim (in this order) take the first places anyway. The total sum of this year’s TV aksjon amounts to an impressive 367 million kroner, of which 50 million kroner were given by the Norwegian government.