JustWorld Ambassadors 🐴 June Update and Important News
JUNE 2024 NEWS
Get Your JWI Fly Bonnets!
We’re excited to announce that JustWorld fly bonnets can be purchased through Talisman Equine.
Handmade in Canada for more than 20 years, these bonnets can be found from the pony ring to the Olympic Games. For each JWI bonnet sold, 40 percent is donated back to JustWorld, so get yours now! Be sure to follow Talisman on Instagram @talismanbonnets.
Call For Ideas: 2025 Gala Theme
Do you have a great idea for our next gala theme? We’ve featured A Night In Paris, The Wizard of Oz, Carnival do Rio, Venetian masquerade, 1920s and many more! Let us know your thoughts by emailing info@justworldinternational.org and your idea might be on display at our biggest annual fundraiser!
*NEW WEBINAR SERIES*
Join us for the first in a series of webinars for our Ambassadors.
JULY 11: Ambassador Webinar: Who to Watch at The Paris Olympics, presented by Catie Staszak Media
1:30 pm EST, 7:30 pm CET
Join broadcast analyst and journalist Catie Staszak, who will be working for NBC as a data analyst during this summer’s Olympic Games, as she breaks down all you need to know about show jumping’s fan favorites and rising stars headed to compete in Paris.
As we plan future webinars, let us know who you’d like to hear from and what you’d like to learn or share, and we will work to arrange it!
*NEW MONTHLY AMBASSADOR COMMUNITY CONNECT*
Log on once a month to meet other Ambassadors, network and connect, plus brainstorm ideas for fundraising and socializing. Our first meeting will be June 11, 7-8 pm EST. We will be hosting another one convenient to CET soon!
5 Minutes With Eric Navet
Alden Corrigan Media Photo
With three gold and three silver medals from World Equestrian Games, plus a bronze medal from the 1992 Olympic Games for France, Eric Navet is one of the most decorated riders in international jumping.
After 10 years living in San Diego, California, coaching U.S. Olympic hopeful Karl Cook, Navet has returned to Normandy, France, where he and his daughter Laurene show at the national level, and he continues to coach Cook at events.
“I’m still in the game, riding every day, showing for fun,” Navet said. “This is my 51st year of competition.”
As an Ambassador for JustWorld since its founding more than 20 years ago, Navet, 65, tells us why giving back is important to him and his legacy.
What motivated you to become involved with JustWorld?
I liked the idea of course. I think that we are very lucky and privileged in our sport to participate with such a great animal that is the horse and to have the possibility to practice our sport with the animal. All of us who practice in Europe and the U.S. and other countries, we are blessed because we were born in the right place, and that’s not the case for everybody in the world.
There’s a French song that says you don’t choose where you were born, where you were taught to walk; you can be taught on the sidewalks of Paris or Manila or undeveloped countries. It’s just luck, where you were born, and we need to realize that. I’m super lucky, and it’s important to realize that and think about people who didn’t have that luck when they came to this world. A community like ours can give back to these people who don’t get the chance that we had.
PIO students thank Eric Navet for his contributions to their school.
How do you find ways to contribute to JustWorld and why?
I’ve been contributing every year since the beginning, giving a donation. I think that I am one of the oldest not only because of my age but because of the number of years I’ve been donating.
Has your family also been involved in horses?
I have three daughters. One is at the farm with us riding every day, training and showing. It’s a family thing; my wife [Ursula] helps as well because I’m often away. I’ve developed babies all my life–the horses that took me to the Olympics and World Games were all horses I produced myself. I love to do that. I have nine medals from the Olympics and World Championships, all on horses I developed myself.
One of my daughters, Estelle, has helped with JustWorld when she was in Florida.
Alden Corrigan Media Photo
What do you see as the role of the equestrian community in the larger world?
It is important as a community that we realize where we are, what we do. The equestrian community is huge, and it’s very important to teach the younger generations to make them realize how lucky they are, to think about it, to work to get more donations, more people to help these children, make their lives better. The younger generation must be motivated by that. This is a very important part of the education of a child to learn to share, how to be a good human being. Parents should be very motivated in that way and [encourage involvement in] JustWorld.
Our riding accomplishments are one thing, but being a good human being can be a different thing. That’s always been very important to me not only to be a good rider but to be a good person, and a good person thinks about others.
It’s very difficult, because as a rider at the top level, you have to focus on yourself. Sometimes you have to be selfish to be able to do individual accomplishments. [During] some priorities, like Olympics or World Championships, you have to be selfish or otherwise you won’t perform; it’s only about that. But in between it’s important to be a good human and think of others.
New Book From Ambassador Sydney Collier
JustWorld Ambassador and U.S. para dressage team member Sydney Collier has an autobiography coming out in early July, describing how she overcame the odds to rise to the top of para dressage competition. “Beyond Expectations: An Extraordinary Equestrian Journey from Deadly Diagnosis to the Paralympic Games” can be pre-ordered now.
UPCOMING EVENTS
JustWorld will be partnering with the following shows this summer, with activations and Adopt-A-Project opportunities. Join us if you can!
St. Gallen CSIO5*
(Switzerland)
May 31-June 2
The top-10 show jumping teams in the world will meet to compete in the first European leg of the Longines League of Nations at St. Gallen, including Sweden, the reigning Olympic and World champions; the United States, silver medalists from the 2021 Olympic Games, and Belgium, reigning bronze Olympic medalists. They’ll join the Netherlands, Great Britain, Ireland and Brazil, plus Germany, which holds the record for Nations Cup wins, France, and Switzerland, Nations Cup defending champions.
In addition to the CSIO, there will be young horse classes and five national classes in the St. Gallen arena. JustWorld will be onsite and offering the winners of the weekend’s youth classes the opportunity to participate in Adopt A Project.
Future Champions at Hof Kasselmann
(Germany)
June 11-16
Hof Kasselmann hosts this competition for young riders in dressage and jumping, with Nations Cups for pony riders, children, juniors and young riders. JustWorld will present the winning teams with Adopt A Project activations, to spread awareness of the work and the needs of communities it serves around the world.
Called “the Aachen of Youth,” Future Champions has helped advance the careers of many young riders, who’ve gone on to become Olympic and World champions.
North American Youth Championships at Great Lakes Equestrian Festival
(Michigan)
July 30-August 4
Morrissey Management Group’s Great Lakes Equestrian Festival returns again this year as the host site for the North American Youth Championships for dressage and jumping at Flintfields Horse Park, during Week 5 of the six-week circuit in Traverse City, Michigan.
Offering team and individual championships, the event enables young riders to represent their country and develops future international team riders.
JustWorld will be presenting the winning teams with Adopt A Project choices as an opportunity to gain exposure to the need for philanthropy and to examine their own priorities.
July 22: Charity Golf Scramble benefitting JustWorld International at LochenHeath Golf Club in Traverse City, Michigan. As part of JustWorld’s partnership with Traverse City Horse Shows and the Great Lakes Equestrian Festival, the show is hosting a golf tournament to benefit JustWorld the week of the North American Youth Championships. See an array of sponsorship opportunities, or sign up to play!
ROAD TO PARIS: Call for Photos
Are you campaigning for a spot at this summer’s Olympics? Or attending the Olympics as a volunteer? Let us know, and we’ll follow along and support you every step of the way.
JustWorld Ambassador Pedro Cebulkawill be the ringmaster, and JWI LDP Panelist Guilherme Jorge will be the show jumping technical delegate.
We’d love to get an overview of all our Ambassadors’ involvement in Paris this summer!
Ambassadors:
Please Register for 2024!!
JustWorld’s Global Ambassador Program was relaunched to kick off 2024, offering equestrians a more interactive experience and many new features revealed throughout the year. The new application should only take a few minutes to complete. If you've not already done so, please enroll for 2024.
Ambassadors can be anyone in the equestrian community—riders, officials, show staff, owners or fans! So if you know of anyone who might be interested, please let us know!
Want to buy a hat, shirt, fleece pullover, or stickers, patches and water bottles?
Shop the exclusive JWI x Anna Klose Hamburg hoodie with proceeds donated back to our cause.
Thank you to our Ambassadors who have already enrolled in the new system for 2024!
Horses or tack for sale, home and stable rentals, clinics, camps, jobs or internships wanted or needed—let us know what you need to share with the community, and we’ll add it to the newsletter.This is your community! Contact Beth Rasin
Please be sure to follow us on Instagram, Facebook and Linkedin, and share our news! And tag us on your posts!
#JustWorld #RideForTheCause #JustWorldInternational
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JustWorld International
Established in 2003, JustWorld International was created to connect equestrians with a direct way to help fracture the cycle of poverty through education, healthcare, nutrition, and leadership programs benefiting children around the world. Ambassadors from more than forty countries have since committed to “Ride for the Cause” and transform the lives of children through equestrian sport. JustWorld has united the international equestrian community and become the Official Charity Partner of the Fédération Equestre Internationale (FEI), the world governing body of equestrian sport. Envisioning a more just world, the non-profit organization cultivates strategic, project partnerships in a collaborative approach to impact the lives of nearly 10,000 children around the globe annually.
To donate, become an Ambassador, or learn more about JustWorld, please visit www.justworldinternational.org or @justworldinternational on Facebook and Instagram.
JustWorld International is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization in the United States and tax-deductible donations are accepted in the United States. JustWorld International has no political or religious affiliation.