JustWorld at German Friendships: Forming Friends, Expanding Horizons, and Changing Lives

What's new with JustWorld this month? Nadine Kassner, Julie Leichle, Antje Muente, and Imke Pacheco organized exciting JustWorld events at the German Friendships! These Ambassadors saw the gap of JustWorld awareness in their country and hoped to fill it.The German Friendships horse show is a unique annual event. The format of the competition is what makes it different: each German rider is paired with an international competitor. The German rider lends their teammate a horse, and the two compete together against other teams for the championship. Adding to the excitement, top German riders such as Markus Beerbaum, Janne Friederike Meyer, and Lars Nieberg gave clinics to youth participants and showed off their skills in a World Cup style competition. The goal of the event’s format is to promote friendships by focusing on international teamwork and communication, which can be seen in the horse show’s motto, “friendships, not championships.”Nadine and her team believed that the German Friendships was the perfect place to begin promoting JustWorld in Germany because the competition is focused on youth; nearly all of the classes are geared towards juniors. In addition, Nadine’s friendship with the horse show’s organizers made it easy for her to integrate JustWorld into the competition’s schedule. This was done in a number of ways. A beautiful JustWorld booth was up and running all week, where information was doled out about the organization and participants were encouraged to fill out ambassador applications. At the booth, toys were given out to attract parents and their kids, and face and t-shirt painting were offered. A three-day Horseless Horse Show was also organized with impressive prizes for winners including Selleria Equipe accessories, UVEX Helmets and a weeklong trip to pony camp. Julie Leichle exclaimed that they had so many nationalities represented at the Horseless Horse Show that they could have made it into a Nations Cup!Nadine worked with a realistic goal for JustWorld’s first event in Germany: to concentrate primarily on spreading awareness and getting youth involved rather than focusing on how much money they raised. Her team succeeded in accomplishing this task. They attracted many children to their booth and invited them to be ambassadors and created a promotional video that received more than 6,800 views. They also raised approximately 2,500 euros, which will finance healthcare for approximately 800 children. As said by Julie, “I am delighted to see how much can be achieved when people work as a team. All of our volunteers and the ambassadors put an unbelievable amount of work and love into the project knowing it was for such a great cause!”Julie hopes that their fundraiser will set a precedent for JustWorld involvement in Germany. She said, “I am happy that we could help the children in Cambodia and I hope this event is just the first one of many more to follow in Germany!” Nadine, Julie, and their supporters did a marvelous job coordinating events at the German Friendships, and it will be exciting to see how JustWorld’s future activity in Germany is shaped by their efforts.