In partnership with Making, an experience and content agency and Awardtoday, a communications agency, we participated in the promotion of the Centenary of the "O Século" Children's Seaside Colony*, created in 1927 by the newspaper "O Século", and managed, since 1998, by the "O Século" Foundation, recognized as a Social Solidarity Foundation with Public Utility status.
(in execution)
* In 1927, the "O Século" Children's Seaside Colony was founded in Trafaria by the newspaper "O Século" and its director, João Pereira da Rosa. The Colony then began to welcome underprivileged children from all over the country for 15-day holiday periods, holidays they would otherwise never have. Until 1943, the costs of the Colony were covered by the newspaper, which periodically appealed for donations, lists of which appeared in its pages. By 1943, the Colony had already provided holidays for 31,123 children – its financing was becoming difficult. João Pereira da Rosa decided to create a corporate financier for the project and requested authorization to create "an international sample fair" in Lisbon: this is how the Lisbon Popular Fair was born, which has since then financed the holidays of poor children. Back in 1943, the Count of Monte Real donated 200,000 escudos to the newspaper "O Século" in order to purchase land located next to Avenida Marginal in São Pedro do Estoril, where the new Colony building was constructed, with 8,000 square meters of usable area in a prime location with direct access to the beach. Holidays for underprivileged children continued, and more than 150,000 children have passed through the Colony. The newspaper "O Século" was nationalized after April 25th (1974), and subsequently, the extinction of the public company of the newspaper "O Século" was decreed by Decree-Law 162/79 of December 29th, determining that the extinction of this entity "will inexorably involve the alienation of all its assets, namely those of the Children's Seaside Colony". Following this decree, the Count of Monte Real claimed ownership of the building and land of the Children's Seaside Colony, as these had been donated by his father, the donation stipulating the purpose of "assistance to underprivileged children" and granting the heirs the right to recover the property or its value should it be used for another purpose. This claim put an end to the intention to sell the building and land of the Children's Seaside Colony, transforming the liquidation process of the public company Jornal "O Século" into the longest on record. The solidarity group of Children's Seaside Colony "O Século" and the Lisbon Popular Fair thus resisted the company's liquidation process: the Colony continued to shelter needy children, and the Lisbon Popular Fair, its main funder, continued to entertain the people of Lisbon. But degradation set in – it was more a process of resistance than consolidation. The status of a company in liquidation did not allow for more. In 1996, Rodolfo Crespo, who was appointed to chair the Steering Committee overseeing the Colónia Balnear Infantil/Feira Popular de Lisboa complex, proposed transforming the statutes and creating a Foundation to consolidate the social work. The act of creating the Foundation took place on April 3, 1998, and was signed by Rodolfo Crespo, Fernando Pádua, Armando Baptista Bastos, Alfredo Augusto Dias, Custódia Fernandes, Alexandre de Oliveira, Emanuel Martins, Joaquim dos Reis Marques, and José Fraga. Meanwhile, personalities such as Alípio Dias, Rui Nabeiro, and the Countess of Monte Real, granddaughter of the donors of the land where the Colónia Balnear was established, were associated with the project and joined the Board of Trustees. On June 18, 1999, the “O Século” Foundation was recognized as a Social Solidarity Foundation with the status of Public Utility. In September 1999, by joint decree of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers and the Ministries of Social Solidarity and Labor and Finance, the assets of the "O Século" Children's Seaside Colony and the Lisbon Popular Fair, as a primary funder, were transferred to the Foundation. ©
Acknowledgements "O Século" Foundation © ~ Municipality of Cascais ~ Bruno Henriques da Silva ©
