Award ceremony in pandemic times: Karin Bernhard, Sina Jost and Birgit Kleinschmidt (from left) from TSV Elleringhausen followed the announcement of the winners in the national final of the “star” competition via livestream – like the 16 other state winners.
© Gerhard Menkel
No third “Star of Sport” for TSV Elleringhausen: A club from Hanover won the national final of the club competition.
Korbach – The air was out pretty much at 11 o’clock. She audibly escaped from individuals in the conference room of the Waldecker Bank in Korbach. In short, it had become exciting – when the short portraits of the 14 projects that the jury had not placed in one of the top three places were broadcast via the live stream at the virtual award ceremony in the federal final for the “Stars of Sports”. 13 regional winners had already been introduced, TSV Elleringhausen not yet – but then the green and white logo of the club from Waldeck appeared as number 14
No other sparkling award for the “fitness trail” with which the TSV has already caused so much sensation. At the honor without an audience on Monday in the DZ-Bank in Berlin, Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier announced the association IcanDo (Hanover) as national winner and winner of the “Big Star of Sports” in gold.
The jury placed the in second place Karateverein Zanshin-Siegerland. Under the slogan “ZKidz – Zanshin Kidz are clever and courageous”, he has launched a prevention program against sexual violence and child abuse. His goal: to give the children self-confidence so that they can better protect themselves from attacks in everyday life. An initiative of the Duvenstedter SV. The club from the Hamburg district regularly manages to win 95 percent of a year for its offers.
Chairwoman Sina Jost: “Grateful and happy”
A small delegation of the TSV with the chairman Sina Jost and the exercise leaders Birgit Kleinschmidt and Karin Bernhard followed the celebration, which had been moved to the Internet due to Corona, together with representatives from the bank and sports group in front of the screen in Korbach. Disappointment did not even break out. “I am more than grateful and happy that we have come this far,” said Sina Jost after the event. As the winner of the region and in Hesse, TSV has already cleared the sport’s big stars in bronze and silver. “I thought it was sensational that we won silver,” said the club boss.
At the national level, the TSV won 1000 euros in fourth place – the jury placed all the best of the state without placing in the top three. But actually, the narrow-faced presenter Katja Müller-Hohenstein (ARD-Sportschau), “we only have winners here”.
At least the differences in individual projects were often only gradual. With their winning initiative “IcanDo @ School” at the beginning of the corona pandemic in the spring of last year, the Lower Saxony team from IcanDo developed an exercise program in which children in schools and kindergartens can playfully learn to deal with closeness and distance.
The fitness trail that the TSV Elleringhausen junior team designed with 20 exercise stations in the fresh air spread around the village was also a response to the Corona crisis. With the “rather small idea that then turned out to be very big”, the club “kept the sport alive” in a time of closed halls, said Sina Jost.
Six projects revolve around Corona
Six of the seventeen “star” projects in the federal finals were related to Corona. “It’s great what the sports clubs have put together in these difficult times”, praised Federal President Steinmeier at the virtual award ceremony. “This creativity gives me hope for the New Year, even if we all have to sit still at home a lot so that we can overcome this crisis together.”
The President of the German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB), Alfons Hörmann, called the creativity and energy of the clubs “simply outstanding”. Hörmann also pointed out the consequences of the current sports lockdown: “Children and young people in particular suffer from a lack of sports facilities and the motivation in the area of volunteer work is falling – we must counteract these developments under all circumstances.”
Marija Kolak, President of the Federal Association of German Volksbanks and Raiffeisenbanks (together with the DOSB organizer of the “Stars” competition), congratulated the award-winning clubs with the words: “They are all role models and deserve to be in the spotlight today”
The thing with the example can be taken literally. Sina Jost said that the fitness trail project could be “imitated in any other place”. The interest is there. “I often hear that other clubs want to copy you,” said Sportkreis Chairman Uwe Steuber.
Conversely, the Elleringhausen participation in the national finals in domestic sport aroused interest in other winning projects. The IcanDo concept, available as a download on the Internet, has already made the rounds in the Turngau Waldeck. School sport is by far also a topic that the employees Jan Speer and Verena Gottmann have taken up in the sports group and that they want to pursue, said Steuber.
Learn from other clubs
The Sportkreis also wants to be inspired by a prevention program against sexualised violence, for which the karate club Zanshin-Siegerland in Berlin was announced as second. A very similar project, for which Jana Glindmeyer from VfL Pinneberg received the audience award, met with just as great interest from Turngau and Sportjugend. As chairwoman of the sports youth and child protection officer, she was significantly involved in the project “Stop – Not with me!” It is primarily about a twelve-page comic about child protection, which the association from Schleswig-Holstein has published.
An idea from Brandenburg for more sustainability in sport is also well received. Steuber announced that all “star” award winners at the regional level (in addition to TSV Elleringhausen, VfL Bad Wildungen, SV Mehlen and Turngau Waldeck) wanted to plant an apple tree soon – a symbol of the goal that the sports clubs are “moving towards more climate neutrality develop ”, as Steuber said.
Possibly a field for the next club competition in Waldeck this year. Waldecker Bank board member Karl Oppermann and marketing manager Carsten Stumpe hope for broad participation. They also asked the TSV to take part in the future: Elleringhausen kept coming up with good ideas.
–
