1. PETRILA CHILDREN’S CLUB PETRILA – ROMANIA http://www.clubulcopiilorpetrila.ro

2. Story of the city Petrila is built at 675 m altitude, on the shores of the Transilvanian Jiu, on the confluence of Jieţ and Taia creeks. It is a very old human settlement, mentioned in documents from 1499 and 1493. At the time of the creation of the first Romanian medieval states, the Principality ruled by the Romanian voievoda Glad (ninth - tenth centuries) also included the Jiu Valley.

3. Story of the city The most important written document about the Jiu Valley is an 1493 act of donation by king Vladislaus I of Hungary o the romanian cneaz Mihail Cânde. According to some authors, the name of the city comes from the latin adjective petrinius [of stone], the area having many names with similar references: Piatra Roşie [Red Stone], Pietrele [The Stones], Petros [Stony].

4. Story of the city The beginnings of systematic coal exploitation in Jiu Valley are in 1840, when the Hoffman and Carol Maderspach brothers, Austrian mine owners from yet another area of Transylvania, lay the foundations of the future mining enterprises and exploitation. They amassed large amounts of mining land by buying it from the newly liberated serfs.

5. Story of the city Placed in the midst of the “stony redoubt of the Carpathians,” Petrila, guarded in the North by the Şurean mountains and the Roşia hill, in the East by the Cimpa hill, and in the South by the de Muncelul Jieţului and the grand Parâng mountain, represents a wonderful departure point for both long, short, and medium hiking expeditions.

6. Petrila Children’s Club was founded in 1971 under the name of “The House of Pioneers.” Since then it operates in the building of the former General School no. 1 from Petrila, raised in 1950. In its 40 years of activity the Children’s Club hosted activities across the a large spectrum educational programs PETRILA CHILDREN’S CLUB

7. PETRILA CHILDREN’S CLUB Auto mechanics, instrumental music, ship model design, folk dancing, folk music, landscape orientation, choreography, modern dancing, informatics, electro-mechanics, plastic arts, vocal- instrumental music, table tennis, etc)

8. In recent years Petrila Children’s Club underwent major renovations, aimed to provide technical support and material for our activities, as well as better infrastructure and comfort for the students. PETRILA CHILDREN’S CLUB

9. The Club can also host small groups of teachers and children from out of town in its own accommodation facilities. We are happy that this material base allows us to develop friendships with other institutions, and, most importantly, extend our outreach and enrich the educational experience of all our students. PETRILA CHILDREN’S CLUB We await and welcome you at Petrila Children’s Club!

10. Workshop roster 2011-2012 The workshop for potential writers proposes to teach students the main techniques of creative writing. Our latest project is titled La vie on prose [Life in Prose] and many of the student efforts have been published in the local media. The workshop already published a edited collection, Scrierea cu lumina. La Petrila [Writing with Light. In Petrila]. Creative writing

11. Workshop roster 2011-2012 The workshop is part of our ambitious Wood Engravings Center. This year the students are learning woodcarving, which is a highly prized tradition among the momarlani (the peasant population indigenous to Jiu Valley). Folk Art

12. Workshop roster 2011-2012 Last year we launched a contest – exhibition titled Crearea frumosului din urat [Making Beauty out of Ugliness]. Our idea was to help the city authorities in transforming the chiaroscuro and somber colors of a mining city into a polichrome game in which both color and composition would emphasize solar themes. Painting / Drawing

13. Workshop roster 2011-2012 The informatics workshop connects the youth of Jiu Valley to the future. Beyond just using the modern means of communication, which have transformed the earth into a global village, the students are encouraged to develop their practical and innovative spirit. Informatics

14. Workshop roster 2011-2012 Today, when everyone uses modern technology without understanding how it functions, this workshop, which emphasizes building electronics, shows the children in ways they can understand, the making of modern inventions which have changed the destiny of humanity. Our motto is famous, and loved by all interested: “How to do it?” Electronics

15. Workshop roster 2011-2012 The students are taught to write news items from their street, and our intent is to assemble, in the end, a puzzle of Petrila, and implicitly, of the Jiu Valley, as it stands at the beginning of the twenty-first century. This autumn we launched the first number of our monthly, Ziarul Nostru, [Our Newspaper], written by the students and the teachers of the club. Newsroom

16. Workshop roster 2011-2012 We are trying to preserve a important tradition in Romanian sports, one which gave a world champion, and now places us close to the European podium. It is a highly successful workshop, and one which we are able to maintain due to the generosity of our collaborators. Table tenis

17. Workshop roster 2011-2012 This is a new workshop, created in collaboration with the Orthodox Parish in Petrila. The workshop enjoys the shepherding of the parish priest Pantelimon Tetileanu, who also prepared for the course one of the rooms of the club. History of religion

18. Workshop roster 2011-2012 A workshop well-loved by young people of all ages, where, along with modern dances, the teachers also teach the traditional dances of the area. The workshop thus seeks to combine tradition and modernity through the language of music and body. Modern dance

19. Workshop roster 2011-2012 Winning the Comenius project mobilized the Club’s teachers to also bring up to date and improve the presentation of our club on our own website. The coordinating professor and the students of the web design workshop bring up to date and maintain the website, among other activities. Webdesign

20. Workshop roster 2011-2012 A newly created workshop which initiates the students in the study of the concrete realities from our new Europe, which we are building together since the fall of the Berlin wall. European studies

21. Workshop roster 2011-2012 Mathematics is far more than dry course matter, but it is a intelligent and fun way to discover games of logic. It is a new and interesting way to attract students to the study of mathematics, without making them feel constrained by their study. Logic games