site.btaBTA National Press Club Opens in Gabrovo

The Bulgarian News Agency (BTA) opened a national press club in Gabrovo on October 31, marked as World Savings Day. The date was chosen because Gabrovo residents are known not just for their sense of humour but for their proverbial thriftiness as well.

BTA Director General Kiril Valchev, Regional Governor Kristina Sidorova and Municipal Mayor Tanya Hristova cut the ribbon in the presence of representatives of central and local government, directors of cultural institutions, journalists and friends of BTA.

Valchev recalled that this is BTA's 20th national press club in a regional capital outside Sofia. Its press clubs abroad are in Skopje (the Republic of North Macedonia), in Bucharest (Romania) and Taraclia (Moldova), both of which opened on October 28, and in Bosilegrad (Serbia).

Valchev said: "We chose this date for its symbolism. It is on the eve of the Bulgarian Awakeners' Day, and Gabrovo is a town of many awakeners. Today is also World Savings Day in the sense of saving money as well as time and effort. Thanks to you all, we saved time and opened the press club very quickly," he said.

He announced a joint initiative with the town's Aprilov National Secondary School. School students will be offered an internship at the local press club. At the end of the school year, BTA will help the star student who wants to study journalism, on condition that he or she will return to Gabrovo to join the correspondents. 

The school is named after Vassil Aprilov, one of the patriotic donors who opened the first Bulgarian secular school using the monitorial system of education in Gabrovo in 1835.

Mayor Tanya Hristova said Gabrovo had long deserved to have a BTA press club. "The town has always needed more attention, more visibility for what happens here. It is not only in the past that we had the privilege to be at the forefront. Now we are often in the limelight too," said Hristova.

With the new club, BTA will continue its information activity in the region and the premises will be a meeting place for representatives of the institutions and the media.