8th representative ball of the VŠPJ marked by silver and celebration of the 20th anniversary of the school

After the initial welcome of all present by the Rector of the VŠPJ Zdeněk Horák, the dance floor was dominated by the Ulet group, which operates within the Day and Weekly Residential Centre Jihlava, p.Clients of this year's silent auction beneficiary dazzled the audience with their emotionally charged dance performance called True Colors. By the end of the opening performance, which was inspired and accompanied by the hit song of the same name by American singer Cyndi Lauper, the band Celebration had already taken the stage and the floor gradually began to fill with the first dancers.

Soon enough, one of the first surprises of the evening awaited the visitors. The mysterious music accompanied by a recital of a woman's voice, which rang out at half past eight in the main hall of the Workers' House Jihlava, gave a hint that something unrepeatable would follow. The spectacular performance entitled Born 20 years ago, which on the occasion of the 8th representative ball of the VŠPJ and this year's significant anniversary was prepared by students and staff of the school under the direction of Ing. Dagmar Frendlovská, Ph.D., presented the Polytechnic College Jihlava as an almost mythological figure firmly linked to the Vysočina Region and its nature and inhabitants.

As is the tradition at the College's representative balls, awards were also presented to academic staff during the gala evening. The Opus Optimum prize, which has been awarded by the Rector of VŠPJ since 2012 to the authors of the best creative output published by VŠPJ staff, was not awarded this year. The Rector of the University of Applied Sciences, Zdeněk Horák, presented the prizes for advancing to the Opus Optimum final to Dr. Ivica Linderová and Dr. Peter Scholz from the Department of Tourism and Professor David Kachlík from the Department of Health Studies. Ivica Linder also accepted the award for Dr. Hana Kotoučková from the Department of Mathematics. For Dr. Lenka Kuklišová Pavelková, Dr. Lucie Zárybnicka and Assoc. Libor Pekar received the award from Assoc. Radek Kolman, Head of the Department of Technical Studies.

For the first time ever, the results of the VSU Athlete of the Year poll were also announced during the representative ball. The award for the best female athlete of the current academic year was received from the hands of the Rector Bc. Lucie Čechová. The student of the 4th semester of the combined form of studies of the Bachelor's programme Tourism is competitively engaged in archery. Right from the beginning of the year 2024 she achieved significant success in her discipline. As a representative of VŠPJ and TJ Jiskra Humpolec she took the 3rd place at the 12. Academic Championship of the Czech Republic 2024 in indoor archery, which took place on 12th January in Olomouc. At the 33rd Czech Indoor Archery Championship, which took place from 16th to 18th February in Nymburk, she also managed to take 4th place in the women's team category together with other members of the TJ Jiskra Humpolec team.

The sweet spot after the award ceremony was another surprise of the evening in the form of a birthday cake with the logo of the celebration of 20 years of the University of Applied Sciences, which was cut by the Rector of the University of Applied Sciences and which was then offered to the visitors present. And the next surprise did not wait long. An incredible burst of energy was brought into the hall by an audiovisual light show by the group Rockfire.

An integral part of the evening was the traditional charity silent auction, the proceeds of which the school donates to the chosen organization. The beneficiary of this year's silent auction was Denní a týdenní stacionář Jihlava, p.o. Just like last year, the participants of the ball were able to auction off really beautiful items, which were donated to the auction this time by the beneficiary of the silent auction of last year's ball, such as the Halfway House Havlíčkův Brod, SUŠG and VOŠG Jihlava, ceramist Jana Marincová, the publishing house Adolescent, the interest website Nerdopolis, photographer Karel Sýkora or painter Pavel Bezděčka. The symbolic cheque for the total proceeds of the auction, which this year amounted to 40 000 CZK, was personally received by the director of the organisation Mgr. Eva Pohořelá. The funds received will be used by the organization to support the activities of the Sport Club Ježci Jihlava. The athletes of SK Ježci Jihlava regularly train and participate in national competitions in athletics, badminton, swimming, cycling, tossing, table tennis, bowling, bocce and now also in dance sport. They have also managed to make the Czech national team for the Special Olympics World Summer Games four times in a row. From the last Olympics in Berlin, the largest Hedgehog team to date brought back two silver and one bronze medal and a lot of experiences.

The gala evening was hosted by the experienced moderator Jiri Doležal, who has successfully moderated not only several previous VŠPJ balls, but also, for example, last year's Academic Day or the traditional event Sports with VŠPJ. The final afterparty of the ball was provided by DJ Radek Šiml, whose careful selection of hits across musical styles and decades kept the dance floor full of dancers until the second hour of the morning.