Together for handball

Dear friends and handball enthusiasts,

Handball club Petrinja was founded in 1958 and since its beginnings, its teams have been achieving great results, and they have had very successful players, which has resulted in the establishment of handball as the most popular sport in the town of Petrinja. Today, 64 years later, the club is still one of the largest membership sports clubs in Petrinja. Currently, the club has five coaches and over 100 players under the age of 29, who have had regular practice sessions throughout the year. The younger players compete in 7 different age categories and the senior team is presently in the 2nd Croatian Handball League – North. These are significant numbers for a small town like Petrinja. Through a close cooperation and mutual efforts of club members and their parents, the club has hosted several very successful and well-attended annual tournaments over the past several years. In addition, the club has started the implementation of a European Union project whose aim is to promote handball and healthy living among the youngest school-age population.

At this time, marked by great progress and significant success, Handball club Petrinja and our hometown were struck by a catastrophe no one could have imagined. On December 29, 2020, a devastating earthquake caused extensive damage to our town and the surrounding area. Human lives were lost, many people have been left homeless and almost all of the buildings in the town center are now in ruins. In a matter of seconds, all of the buildings important for the functioning of the town and for a normal life were destroyed. It has been a month since the catastrophe that has profoundly changed our lives, but the residents of Petrinja are still in shock. Although the whole situation is extremely difficult, we are filled with hope because, on a daily basis, we have witnessed the kindness of people from all over Croatia, Europe and the world who have been helping our fellow citizens and the town of Petrinja. “A small town with a big heart” is the slogan of Petrinja and it symbolizes our town and its people, now after this accident even more than ever. The people in Petrinja and the surrounding area have a great will and desire to bring life back to our town, but they need help in achieving that.

We are reaching out to you in hope that you will recognize how strongly we, as the handball club, feel about contributing to the reconstruction and revitalization of the town of Petrinja. Given that our handball players have lost their gym, they have nowhere to continue their training sessions and competitions. Our great wish is to prevent handball from dying out in Petrinja, and with the help of all our handball friends from other countries, we wish to provide sports activities, entertainment, socialization and a healthy lifestyle for our children. More specifically, we would like to change the appearance of the former outdoor handball court by replacing the old surface with a more adequate one and by adding the balloon hall so that our players would have a place where they could train and play matches irrespective of weather conditions.

Therefore, we ask you, according to your possibilities and wish, to contribute to the realization of our plan and help us continue handball tradition in Petrinja. For reaching are goals and giving possibility for playing handball again in Petrinja we need to collect 161.734,00 €.