Instead of a mouse and keyboard, you used a hammer and saw on Social Day. How did it come about?
Benjamin: Our Social Day came about through a contact with Maria Weiss from the BONUS Volunteer Center in Göttingen and our training coordinator, Eileen Zimbal. The Volunteer Center promotes volunteer engagement and connects volunteers with organizations that need support in their projects. This is also known as corporate volunteering. And during the search for volunteers, the connection to Arineo was made.
How did you come across the project “Raised beds for SC Hainberg”?
Benjamin: Eileen approached us trainees and asked if we’d be interested in taking part in a Social Day. The offer was aimed at our second-year trainees. We found the idea of combining a team day with social engagement very exciting and took a look at the available projects. These included projects such as “Planting Trees,” “IT Training for Seniors,” and building raised beds at SC Hainberg. Most of us voted for the last one. Eileen coordinated the organization and scheduling with Maria from the BONUS Volunteer Center and Lars Willmann from SC Hainberg.
What exactly did you do?
Benjamin: We built mobile raised beds on site. These are meant to serve as privacy screens or boundaries for the outdoor sports equipment at the FunSporthalle Göttingen. SC Hainberg already had an idea of what the beds should look like and provided us with the materials, tools, and a rough construction plan. We first reviewed the instructions and discussed which tasks needed to be done and how we wanted to approach the whole thing. We then formed teams for the individual stages, including cutting or staining wood, for example. In bright sunshine, we managed to complete one raised bed and prepare two more.
All participants were really great and highly motivated. We were particularly impressed by the team spirit, the respectful cooperation, and the openness and relaxed attitude towards us. Although we didn’t finish the construction, the groundwork was well done. We’ll complete the project with children and young people from Göttingen’s socially disadvantaged areas. I’d like to say “thank you” for the wonderful day and hope we can create something together again in the future.
Lars Willmann, BONUS Volunteer Center Göttingen (Caritas Association of Southern Saxony e.V.)
And what do you get out of it?
Benjamin: We had an exceptional team-building experience and got to know each other even better. After all, we were in an unfamiliar environment working on a project completely outside our usual field of work at Arineo. This also revealed various skills and strengths among our colleagues that we hadn’t seen in our day-to-day work. It felt great to create something that day that benefits others. We also got to know some of the staff at SC Hainberg, who treated us to a delicious pizza at lunchtime.
Further impressions
