A special gold-painted Bobcat S175 skid-steer loader will be auctioned later this year to Bobcat dealers in Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) to raise funds for the "Schools for Africa" campaign by UNICEF. The auction of the unique Bobcat loader is the latest initiative in the 3-year collaboration between Bobcat EMEA and UNICEF Belgium. A second Bobcat S175 “Heart of Gold” loader will be put on permanent display at the reception area of the Bobcat plant at Dobris in the Czech Republic. To emphasize the link with the children being helped by UNICEF, the auction of the golden loader is timed to close the day before St Nicholas’ Day. The dealer winning the auction will be invited to come to the Bobcat EMEA headquarters in Brussels a week later, on Saturday 13th December 2008, at the annual Bobcat Christmas party to hand over a cheque for the winning bid to a representative of UNICEF Belgium. Lee Harrison, Strategic Development Director of Bobcat EMEA, visited a ‘Schools for Africa’ project in Mozambique earlier this year. He said: "As part of our 3-year collaboration with UNICEF Belgium, we are delighted to auction this special 50th anniversary golden loader toraise funds for UNICEF’s work in Africa. Our partnership with UNICEF Belgium reflects Bobcat’s commitment to support the development of communities around the world, particularly the most important people in those communities, the children.” Last year at the Bobcat Distributor Convention in Prague, a colourful Bobcat S100 loader decorated with a drawing by Théo Sisti, the 5-year-old son of an employee of a Bobcat distributor in France, was auctioned to raise funds for UNICEF Belgium. The winning bid came from Fintractor, the Bobcat distributor for Finland, who purchased the loader for EUR 55,000. The significance of UNICEF’s ‘Schools for Africa’ campaign cannot be understated – in Sub-Saharan Africa alone, approximately 45 million children do not go to school. Information about ‘Schools for Africa’ is available at the website: www.schoolsforafrica.com 
