Santa Claus came to town
It was an early Christmas for 224 kindergarten kids from Bremen-Nord who received presents from Jacobs’ Make-A-Wish project.
December 21, 2011Santa Claus had travelled from far afield that day – all the way from Texas with a stop-over at Jacobs University. Packed with a huge sack of presents he visited two Kindergartens in Bremen-Nord where more than 200 children were eagerly waiting to see if their Christmas wishes had come true.
As part of the Make-A-Wish project, a joint venture by students from Jacobs University’s Be-A-Link club and local parents initiative EPSYMO e.V, the wishes from kids at ‘Kindertagesheim Lüssum’ and ‘Kinder- und Familien Zentrum am Fillerkamp’ were collected and pinned on Christmas trees in Bremen Vegesack and on the Jacobs University campus.
Over the last couple of weeks generous locals from Bremen-Nord had followed the call to make those wishes come true. They bought presents for the children or donated money to the Make-A-Wish project at the recent J-Capella Christmas concert on campus.
In the end, Santa Claus, played by Jacobs University Arts Coordinator Rene Wells, could hand over a total of 224 presents and over the course of the day fulfill the Christmas wishes of all children at both Kindergartens.
Fifteen youngsters from the ‘Fish’ group at Kindertagesheim Lüssum were the first to receive their presents. After greeting Santa with a rendition of ‘Schneeflöckchen Weißröckchen’ (matching the first signs of snow outside), the kids collected their gifts, but weren’t allowed to open them all at once.
Each child had to wait their turn to find out if Santa had indeed brought what they had asked for at the same time happily admiring the presents their friend were unwrapping. Whilst Hello-Kitty-themed toys, dresses and Lego were a big hit with the girls in the group, the boys had wished for toy cars, boats, helicopters and motorbikes or Beyblade spintops.
Maren Maetze, managing director of EPSYMO e.V was delighted about the response to Make-A- Wish. “It’s a fantastic project. We are very happy and grateful that people in Bremen-Nord have been generous donating presents or money”, she said. “It’s great to see that Jacobs students supporting their neighborhood and have made our borough their home.”
On behalf of Jacobs University’s Be-A-Link club Inga Reichelt said: “It’s been a lot of hard work, but really rewarding when you see how excited the kids are about their presents. For next year’s project we would invite even more of our students to join Be-A-Link. We could definitely do with more helping hands."
All images © Jacobs University Bremen
