DPD employees walked from the North Pole to the South Pole while helping children with disabilities

At the beginning of the summer, employees of the courier and logistics company DPD in the Baltics traditionally collect kilometres to do good and donate the travelled distances converted into euros to children who, unfortunately, do not have the opportunity to be active. This year, Estonian employees alone collected nearly 20,000 kilometres, which is equal to the distance between the North and South Poles of the Earth.

"The kilometre collecting competition is an annual tradition in our company, which glorifies two goals: to support children with mobility disabilities and to encourage our employees to move as much as possible," said DPD Estonia HR Manager Annika Oruaas. As part of the competition, the teams try to accumulate as many kilometres as possible by walking, running or otherwise actively moving within a month. Afterwards kilometres are converted into euros and directed to support children with mobility disabilities.

This year, the Estonian teams covered a total of 19,908 kilometres, which means that this year DPD will donate 9,950 euros to children with mobility disabilities in Estonia. The entire Baltic region collected 87,125 kilometres, which is more than two circles around the globe.

The Estonian winning team Mellano covered 2,638 kilometres in four weeks, the leader of the Baltics was the Latvian team Turbovafeles, which managed to cover 5,615 kilometres. Almost 90% of the mileage was covered by walking. The longest one-day distance was 43 kilometres, and one DPD employee managed to collect a total of 656 kilometres during the entire competition.

Annika Oruaas, who herself collected 412 kilometres while riding a bicycle as part of the competition, said that this year's activity was motivated by both the good summer weather and people's increasing awareness of a healthy lifestyle and the need to move more. "However, the most important thing is that people's desire to help others and contribute to society grows every year, this is also confirmed by the general picture in Estonia - we are a charitable nation that does not leave others in trouble. This is especially important in these troubled times," added Oruaas.

With the kilometre competition, DPD equally supports the Estonian Association of People with Mobility Disabilities and the Tartu University Hospital Children’s Foundation.

Through the Estonian Association of People with Mobility Disabilities will be supported the organization of a camp for children with mobility disabilities in Haanjamaa: the activities of the camp include animal therapy, a psychologist's workshop, swimming, archery, a drumming workshop, physiotherapy, etc. The youngest camp participant is 5 years old and the oldest is 16 years old.

Through the Tartu University Hospital Children’s Foundation will be supported the construction of playgrounds in Tartu and Pärnu, where both usual children and children with special needs can play together. An extension to the already existing Haapsalu game park is also planned. Parks are built in the immediate vicinity of hospitals, so that all the tiny patients who have come from all over Estonia to stay at the clinic can enjoy the joy of playing.