Much of what has been achieved around us we take for granted over time. However, nothing came of the natural flow of things, but thanks to the interventions and struggles of organizations or citizens, who took the initiative, had the vision to claim and implement small and large goals.
I mention this, on the occasion of the inauguration of the Pelopidas Stathakopoulos Monument in Bakoyannis Square.
Let’s flip through the story.
In 1925, the lawyer – eupatridis Patrinos wrote his will and granted all his property to the Municipality of Patreon. For management, he appointed executors, the director of the National Bank and the presidents of the two Trade Associations, Import and Export.
In 1937 this great benefactor died, leaving the city a large fortune, hundreds of acres in Ai Giorgis Langouras, central stores, apartments in Athens and Patras, cash deposits.
In 2006, the catalyst for the activation was the visit to the Trade Association of about 20 Associations and Associations, people with special abilities, with reference to housing and hospitality.
The Trade Association takes the initiative, decides to inform the mayor, so that the implementation of the will can be undertaken and about 70 years have passed.
We visited the mayor Andreas Fouras for immediate initiative. He stopped short, thought and said: “Go ahead, bring a proposal, I trust you”, giving the trigger.
With a Panhellenic Competition, it was assigned to a company, which started the procedures, to get out of the “labyrinth” of bureaucracy. We grabbed the end of the thread, we recorded the property, which had been encroached upon by the junta with the establishment of the Experimental High School, with streets and squares, which it arbitrarily carved. But the property in Athens was not in a better condition either. Landlords, who hadn’t paid rents, buildings ransacked. We got out of the legal “cogs” after about 6 years of hard and persistent work.
The conditions were not favorable, but we had the will and the vision to implement the covenant.
In 2011, the foundations of the first “Fighters” Structure were laid. Later, the second Structure of Parents and Gender of Persons with Autism “Mitos” was started. Two other Structures can operate in the Structures area, opposite the “Agiou Andreas” Hospital.
In this effort, the contribution of the Trade Association, which took the lead, was important, but also the contribution of the late Sp. Apostolidis, who represented the Export Association.
Finally, let me mention the mayors A. Fouras, who trusted us and dared the project, G. Dimaras and K. Peletidis, who continued the effort.
The finding is that the roads in history are paved with visions from people, who with their ideas and initiatives create the future and the conditions for social claims.
How many donations of buildings, plots of land, properties, money are crawling on some shelves of the Municipality without being used for the benefit of the citizens and finding rest for the “souls of the benefactors”, who put the concept of giving into practice?
In 2021 in the municipal council, as the head of the “Patra Time” Faction, I proposed that the area that includes the Structures and the Experimental High School be named “Pelopida Stathakopoulos Social Structures Area” in honor of the great benefactor, with the naming of a square or even a street. At the same time, in collaboration with the Municipality and Primary and Secondary Education, a special mention should be made in schools for Pelopidas Stathakopoulos.
Because, apart from the Greece of demagogues, personal gain and “nepotism” there is also a Greece of giving, selflessness and altruism.
* Giorgos Roros is the former president of the Trade Association of Patras.
All news directly from Google News. Click here and register
Instant update with all the news now and via WhatsApp – See here
