24.02.11
Soccer balls for children in Ghana: Logwin gets the ball rolling for aid transport
- © Logwin: We made it! Over 1,300 balls and 400
air pumps have been stowed in the ocean-going
container. The helpers are delighted at the
outcome of a successful final in Hamburg.
Grevenmacher (Luxembourg) – The global logistics service provider Logwin is supporting an aid project for children in Ghana under the motto “Das Runde muss ins Eckige” (literally: the round object must go into the square object). The company is organizing the free transport of over 1,300 soccer balls that have been collected in Germany and Austria since the World Cup last year. Performing a “milk run” the Logwin truck headed to five cities in Germany in order to pick up the balls there, Additional donations reached the shipping locations via Logwin's Retail network. The project started in Munich on 14 February 2011. The consignment will now travel by container ship from Hamburg to Tema 5,500 kilometers away in Ghana at the end of February.
Warm-up in Munich, kick-off in Gräfelfing
Munich, 14 February, midday: three Logwin employees in dirndl dresses and two colleagues in lederhosen brave the cold. They are loading the first donations for the “Soccer balls for children in Ghana” campaign on the Logwin premises at Munich Airport. The logistics service provider and Flughafenverein München e.V. (Munich Airport Charitable Association) have donated a total of some 170 balls. The truck leaves for Gräfelfing, 50 kilometers west of the airport, at 1.00 pm. A large number of aid project supports have gathered in front of Wolfart Hospital, and everybody lends a hand with loading: hospital staff such as Dr. Alois Engelhard, orthopedic consultant and club doctor of TSV 1860 Munich, residents of Gräfelfing, including the First Mayor of Gräfelfing, Christoph Göbel, as well as Consul Dr. Georg Claessens, Managing Director Key Account Management at the Logwin business segment Solutions, and Kwasi Owusu-Ansah, President of the Ghana Community in Munich. Florian Wolfart, head of Wolfart Hospital and Honorary Consul for Ghana is co-initiator of the aid campaign. He is impressed by the shared commitment, “One ball will make 22 children happy. It is great to see how our project is bearing fruit and how we can send the balls on their journey.” Preliminary score: helpers in Gräfelfing have loaded over 700 footballs and 300 air pumps.
Home game in Aschaffenburg, stage finish in Düsseldorf
The next day the truck arrives in Aschaffenburg, Logwin's main location in Germany. “It was clear from the very beginning that we would support this project”, says Helmut Kaspers, COO at Logwin’s Air + Ocean business segment. “We really love applying our expertise if this means we can help children.” You can literally watch the truck filling up in Aschaffenburg. The additional 130 footballs and 100 air pumps are joined by a number of handballs. Cornelius Maas and Marius Liebald from TV Grosswallstadt, a leading club in the German Handball League, take careful aim when throwing them into the truck. They are cheered on by André Leibacher from the traditional club's marketing department and by around 50 Logwin employees. The logistics service provider has obtained a total of 500 soccer balls from the Intersport retailers' association in Austria and collected another 110 among staff and customers. The “home game” in Aschaffenburg is followed on 16 February by the finish of the next stage in Düsseldorf. Employees from the Logwin location there load more than 100 additional balls, including donations from BHB Service GmbH in Salzbergen, in glorious sunshine. The team is highly motivated and their passing skills are immaculate, meaning that the balls are loaded onto the truck in record time.
Grand final in Hamburg
The precise passing game between the individual stops on the way culminates in Hamburg. The “milk run” final takes place in front of the Imtech Arena, Hamburg SV's home ground, on 17 February. This is the ideal venue since Logwin has been a partner of HSV for many years. And the traditional club gives prominent support to Logwin for the deciding game in the form of Otto Addo, former professional soccer player and current trainer of the A youth team, and Collin Benjamin, who has played in HSV's professional squad since 2001. Vans carrying further donations of balls from other locations via Logwin's Retail network arrive simultaneously. Since the onward journey from Hamburg to Ghana will be by ship, all the donations must be transshipped from the truck to a seafreight container. Shipping company MOL is supporting the aid project by providing a 20-foot container. The final whistle is blown two hours later. The container is filled with over 1,300 balls and 400 air pumps. The journey will continue aboard the “Hansa Cloppenburg” at the end of February. It will reach the port of Tema in Ghana in just under four weeks, from where Logwin will organize onward transport of the consignment to the “Ankobra Beach Resort” near Axim in the Western Region. The resort will serve as the distribution center for the donations.
Teamwork for a good cause
The initiators of the campaign “Soccer balls for children in Ghana” are the doctors at TSV 1860 Munich, Dr. Alois Englhard and Dr. Willi Widenmayer, together with Dr. Georg Öttl and Dr. Manfred Achten from the soccer club Spielvereinigung Unterhaching. The aid project is supported by the association “Freunde von Ankobra e.V.” whose co-initiator is Florian Wolfart, head of Wolfart Hospital in Gräfelfing. The logistics service provider Logwin is organizing and managing transportation from Germany to Ghana free of charge.
More information on Logwin AG.
More information on the business segment Air+Ocean.
Your contact at Logwin:
Volker Hoebelt
Director Sales + Marketing at business segment Air + Ocean
Tel.: +49 6021 343-9000
Fax: +49 6021 343-9008
volker.hoebelt@logwin-logistics.com
Logwin AG | ZIR Potaschberg | 5, an de Laengten | 6776 Grevenmacher | Luxembourg
