Thank You!
I am so overwhelmed that I can hardly put it into words. The last days and weeks have been very strenuous and energy-draining for me, but through your enthusiastic and encouraging words and the seemingly never-ending flow of donations, I could always draw on new energy and power to keep going. Even in the first days of the New Year further donations have been received. THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart!
As you know, it was my aim to collect enough donations to provide 500 children with a life-changing school meal — now it is 7.459 children, who will enjoy a warm meal on every school day in 2021! Instead of the targeted 9.150 Euro, donations of 136.500 Euro have been received. This equates to 1.516.666 school meals!
It was also an amazing experience to see how so many people within Mary’s Meals were inspired by my campaign and worked flat out for it. And then I also received personal video messages — a wonderful and touching surprise which left me with goose-pimples! The sweet thank you messages from the children in our project countries, or from Father Joson from India, or even from Magnus, all of whom welcomed me with open arms into the Mary’s Meals family.
I have only been an official member of Mary’s Meals since the end of November and already I feel as though I am completely involved! Hopefully, I will be able to get to know several of the volunteers personally in the future.
And then there were also the messages and greetings from people like Amy MacDonald, Sonya Krauss or Philipp Pozzo di Borgo. In my dreams I could never even have imagined this happening.
Whether you donated and/or read, commented, “liked” or even forwarded the news, blogs and posts, it all contributed to the campaign being such a success. I was really pleased about, besides the donations and forwarding, the fact that so many of you have become enthusiastic about this wonderful charity. And also, about the many kind words, and, last but not least, about your prayers.
I look forward to remaining an ambassador for Mary’s Meals and to doing everything possible to make this organisation better known! (You will find below a list of the media reports made about #Felix runs)
It was “Move for Meals”, which began during the first Lockdown in Spring 2020, that inspired me to begin the Campaign “Felix runs for Mary’s Meals” in Advent. When the challenge, Move for Meals, begins its second round, I will be — like hopefully many of you? — at the start. Then you will also have the chance to show everybody how sporty you are.
If you are interested in, apart from the #Felix runs — Campaign, my (and Paula’s) life, then you will find my earlier blog posts under felixfiles. That is where, (after a recovery phase), I will soon write new posts. I will fill the blog https://medium.com/@felixfiles from time to time with both personal and Mary’s Meals’ related posts.
For Mary’s Meals follow my wheels!
*“Move for Meals” (moveformeals.de) is a virtual charity run from Mary’s Meals Germany, which has the aim, as a group, to cover the distance from Mainz to Malawi (11,145 km) and so to raise donations for school meals for 1,000 children. Everybody can take part. You just have to find a sponsor and then off you go, by bike, on foot, climbing the stairs, jogging or even, like me, in a wheelchair; you count your steps and/or kilometres and enter them on the website. We did not quite reach the goal last year, but next time we will make it if more people join in!
By the way:
Food + School = Hope. The lives of the children and their communities change sustainably after the introduction of the Mary’s Meals school feeding programme. Not only the performance, health and contentment of the children is improved, but the whole society around the school changes.
Thousands of volunteers prepare and distribute the meals. Education is seen increasingly as a way out of the vicious circle of poverty. Children are no longer used as extra labour on the fields or sent out to beg. Access to education even becomes possible for the girls. And in the playground the children laugh and play again, simply because they have more energy. Wherever possible the ingredients for the meals are bought locally from the small farmers, with positive effects for the local economy. Forestation is carried out and school gardens are cultivated. The concept of Mary’s Meals is just as simple as it is effective.
Press List:
FAZ (https://zeitung.faz.net/faz/rhein-main/2020-12-09/ef77ad2e0eb077e478b1f66630233507?GEPC=s1)
DLF Nova (https://srv.deutschlandradio.de/dlf-audiothek-audio-teilen.3265.de.html?mdm:audio_id=889621)
In addition:
BUNTE (30.12.); Frankfurter Neue Presse (21.12.); Radio Horeb (7.12.); Westfälische Nachrichten-Nottuln (10.12.); Kompakt Mainz, Rhein-Main-Wochenblatt (24.12.) Tagespost (planned for the middle of January)
