Finally, it was time! After taking my school tests, I went to the introduction/selection weekend of School at Sea at the end of June. That was so much fun! For a weekend we were in Bloemendaal and we played games, walked, sat in front of a campfire and had a very pleasant time! The journey to Bloemendaal started a bit difficult. We were supposed to pick up another SAS participant at the station in Utrecht, but we went from one traffic jam to another. And when we arrived at the station in Utrecht much later than agreed, we could not immediately find the other participant, and then her phone was also empty... But it all came good, and after a total of more than 4 hours in the car we finally arrived in Bloemendaal at the scouting. Everyone was already busy setting up the tent there. We were a little late. But luckily we weren't the only ones! After the two tents were set up (one for the boys and one for the girls) we divided the tasks. For example, who would prepare the food when and who was going to clean the toilets. I had to make coffee with an old-fashioned filter, never done it! The weekend consisted of doing all kinds of exercises. We got a pretty easy exercises first. For example we had to use a rope to make a shape on the ground. If you do that while everyone who participates is allowed to watch, it's very easy. But if you do that exercises when only one person is allowed to watch, it turns out to be a lot more difficult! Because we had to temporarily leave the location (the scouting came) we took a walk of 3.5 hours. In addition, it was intended that two teams would hide 5 tennis balls for each other and then describe the hiding places as clearly as possible. That went pretty well for us when we had to go find the balls. But because we had gone wrong almost immediately, and so followed a different route, it became very difficult for the other team to find the balls. On the second day we did two more games, then packed everything and then looked at a presentation from SAS for some extra information about the trip. That presentation was also about how School at Sea wants to make the trip as sustainable as possible and about organizing a beach clean-up in San Blas. So my goal and my recruitment actions fit in very well with that! I'm going to think again if I have any ideas for School at Sea to do more with this. After that, this super fun weekend was already over... My parents asked at the end of the weekend after I came home tired if I still wanted to go with School at Sea! The answer is: YES OF COURSE!! I'd love to, even better than before. The adventure is getting closer and closer and maybe it will continue... A week after the weekend I received an email stating that I can join School at Sea on the basis of the introductory/selection weekend!!! That means that if everything goes well (by now I know it won't be my school grades, the tests have all gone very well), there is no draw and I have the amount in order, that I CAN GO!!! In the meantime, my parents have contributed a very large amount, so I only have to get a small part together. So if you still have sponsors or have ideas for a good action, please let me know!! Next week I'm going on holiday so I can probably do a little less school at sea. But I'm still trying to bang hard to take the final steps to the full amount! Because I'm definitely not going to stop now until I can really go!!

Eindelijk was het zo ver! Nadat ik mijn schooltoetsen had gedaan, ging ik eind juni naar het kennismakings/selectieweekend van School at Sea. Wat was dat leuk! We hebben met de helft van de groep die mee wil in Bloemendaal een weekend lang spellen gespeeld, gewandeld, voor een kampvuur gezeten en een hele gezellige tijd gehad! De reis naar Bloemendaal begon wat moeizaam. We zouden nog een SAS-deelnemer ophalen bij het station in Utrecht, maar we gingen van de ene file naar de andere. En toen we veel later dan afgesproken bij het station in Utrecht aankwamen, konden we de andere deelnemer niet meteen vinden, en toen was haar telefoon ook nog leeg... Maar het kwam allemaal goed, en na in totaal ruim 4 uur in de auto kwamen we EINDELIJK in Bloemendaal bij de scouting aan. Daar was iedereen al druk bezig met de tent opzetten. Wij waren dus een beetje te laat. Maar gelukkig waren we niet de enige! Nadat de twee tenten waren opgezet (één voor de jongens en één voor de meisjes) hebben we de taken verdeeld. Bijvoorbeeld wie wanneer het eten zou klaarzetten en wie de wc’s ging schoonmaken. Ik moest o.a. koffie maken met een ouderwetse filter, nog nooit gedaan! Het weekend bestond uit het doen van allerlei opdrachten. We kregen eerst een best makkelijke opdracht. We moesten met een touw een vorm maken op de grond. Als je dat doet terwijl iedereen die meedoet mag kijken, is dat hartstikke makkelijk. Maar als je die opdracht dan uitvoert terwijl er maar één iemand mag kijken, dan blijkt dat een stuk moeilijker! Omdat we tijdelijk van de locatie weg moesten (de scouting kwam) hebben we een wandelinge(tje) gemaakt van 3,5 uur. Daarbij was het de bedoeling dat twee teams voor elkaar 5 tennisballen zouden verstoppen en dan de verstopplekken zo duidelijk mogelijk zouden beschrijven. Dat ging best prima voor ons toen wij de ballen moesten gaan zoeken. Maar omdat wij bijna direct verkeerd waren gelopen, en dus een andere route volgden, werd het voor het andere team wel heel erg lastig om de ballen te vinden. Op de tweede dag hebben we nog twee spellen gedaan, daarna alles ingepakt en vervolgens naar een presentatie van SAS gekeken voor nog wat extra informatie over de reis. In die presentatie ging het ook over hoe School at Sea de reis zo duurzaam mogelijk wil maken en over het organiseren van een beach clean-up in San Blas. Daar sluiten mijn doel en mijn wervingsacties dus heel goed op aan! Ik ga nog eens nadenken of ik nog ideeën voor School at Sea heb om hier nog meer mee te doen. Daarna was dit super leuke weekend al weer ten einde… Mijn ouders vroegen aan het einde van het weekend nadat ik moe thuis kwam of ik nu nog steeds mee wilde met School at Sea! Het antwoord is: JA NATUURLIJK!! Heel graag, nog liever dan daarvoor. Het avontuur komt steeds dichterbij en misschien gaat het wel door…… Een week na het weekend heb ik een mail ontvangen waarin stond dat ik op basis van het kennismakings/selectieweekend mee mag met School at Sea!!! Dat betekent dat als alles goed gaat (inmiddels weet ik dat het aan mijn schoolcijfers niet zal liggen, de toetsen zijn allemaal erg goed gegaan), er geen loting is en ik het bedrag op orde heb, dat IK MEE MAG!!! Inmiddels hebben mijn ouders een heel groot bedrag bijgedragen, waardoor ik nog maar een klein deel bij elkaar moet zien te krijgen. Dus als jullie nog sponsors weten of ideeën voor een goede actie hebben, laat het me vooral weten!! Volgende week ga ik op vakantie waardoor ik waarschijnlijk iets minder aan School at Sea kan doen. Maar ik probeer nog steeds keihard te knallen om de laatste stappen te zetten naar het volle bedrag! Want ik ga nu zeker niet meer stoppen tot ik echt mee kan!!

Annehieke, a friend of my mother, came up with the idea of organising a litter action in Overijse a while ago. I immediately thought it was a nice plan because it fits my goal well, draw attention to the problem of plastic in the oceans. I would really do something about it myself. And by having the kilos sponsored, it would also help me a step further, and it certainly did! I went straight to work. With mom’s help, I drew up a nice step-by-step plan. First, I emailed the sponsors of ISCA asking them if they wanted to support the action. Annehieke’s company, Go4vitality , and Capital at Work were willing to sponsor the whole action. That immediately yielded a nice amount. During the May holidays, I went with my brother Pieter to many companies in Overijse to ask if they were willing to sponsor the action. In return, I would come to their company to clean up the litter in the surroundings. Everyone reacted very enthusiastically, but often they had to think about it for a while. This made me a little afraid that the action wouldn’t bring much. But when I came back later, or sent an email, many companies were happy to sponsor. As my Dad said ‘’Sow first, then harvest.’’ Not only did I visit companies, also in the neighbourhood I went from house to house to ask if they wanted to sponsor the action. Honestly, I found it quite difficult to approach people in this way, but the reactions were often very nice and a lot of neighbours decided to sponsor me. Finally, my family also contributed. For the many Kramer’s I made a special video about the litter action, which Pake (my grandfather) placed in the Kramer app group. In addition to sponsorship, I also had to actually organize the action. I contacted the Municipality of Overijse, and they supplied squeezers, gloves and bags. Then I needed friends to help me, and there were! In the end, there were 10 of us! The litter action took place on May 29th, and it was a very nice day. We left in the morning around 11:00 in groups of 2 or 3 and then cleaned for a few hours. After that we all had a nice lunch and then went back to work. At 16:00 we came back and Annehieke was there for a while. We measures the kilos of waste, full of excitement (in particular the last bag was a bit of a challenge, because it was very dirty). Then we spent the rest of the evening hanging out in our garden and baking and eating pizza’s. We thought we deserved it!! In the end we raised 114.3 kilos of waste. And we thought: hopefully we can pick up 30 kilos, because a lot of people had put the maximum amount on that weight. So we picked up a little more... Now that I have done this action, I pay much more attention to what I do with my waste. Because, wow, there was so much on the streets! Normally it doesn't stand out that much, but this way you see and really notice that there is super much litter everywhere. Not only did we pick up 114.3kg of litter, but together we also walked 100,000 steps. In the end, with the sponsorship of Go4vitality , Capital at Work , Top bedding , Ericx-van-den-Wouwer , Les Soeurs d'Anais, Immo Ferco and Sherpatoys, many neighbours and family, and with the help of Emma, Ayla, Carlijn, Amelie, Mila, Maite, Lutein, Ireen, and my sister Anna and her girlfriend Charlotte, we raised 2,500€ with the action! Once again super to all the people and companies who sponsored te action, to all the girlfriends who helped to get this 114.3kg together and of course also to Annehieke: THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!

Sooo, it took a while but here is the first post in my blog that I am going to write about my journey of collecting the money and then hopefully the real journey! I have done and learned a lot already in the past weeks! As you know, I really want to join School at Sea. In order to participate, I have to raise the money myself, which is part of the program. By now I have certainly found out how much 23,500 € really is... I am working hard for it and have already done and achieved a lot in the past 6 weeks. For example, I started a 4-day fundraising course at School at Se a on how to write a nice pitch, learn to present and how to approach people in a good way. This program has made me much more aware of how to organize my day, to see something positive in every day, especially in small things. I've learned to set goals and subgoals if you want to achieve something big. And I also met nice people with whom I will hopefully go on the boat in October! After completing the course, I really started with the fundraising. I thought it would be nice to do something different with my participation and to draw attention to the problem of plastic in the oceans. When I join this trip I can see the problem with my own eyes. I have been in contact with the Plastic Soup Foundation and the Ocean Cleanu p and agreed to promote their work. Precisely because I made this link with plastic, I am much more aware of how much disposable plastic is used and how much litter there is everywhere. This also made me think about what I could do myself. After all, a solution starts with yourself! A friend of my mother gave me the idea of organizing a litter campaign. I will collect litter with 9 friends in Overijse and have it sponsored per kilo. I recorded a video for this, contacted the municipality that will provide all kinds of necessary materials, sent an email to different companies and made a whole plan. And now I have to put the plan into practice! Capital at Work and Go4Vitality support me in this action. I also made a website, which was quite a job. On the website you can find all the information about my project, my actions and how to donate money or sponsor me. I already received almost 3500 euros in donations and through acions for which I want to thank everyone VERY MUCH!! I also approached people for sponsorship from firms. To be honest, it is quite exciting when as a 14-year-old girl (15 since yesterday!) you start talking to adults and you don't know if you did it right. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't work. But I have already received sponsorship from the following companies, whom I also want to thank very much for bringing my dream a step closer: Sappi , Appelhoven , AIC , Marken and Capital at Work . I am also very happy with an action that I have agreed with JUJA . They make UV shirts (and other UV-clothing) from recycled plastic. Everyone who donates 15 euros or more to me will receive a discount code to shop with them, a perecentage of the turnover will be for me. Let's hope that the sun will shine again soon and that everyone wants to go to the beach again. On Sundays I also started baking pizzas for people in the neighborhood. A simple and quiet job, I thought, until 24 pizza's were ordered on a Sunday and after rolling out dough for 24 pizza''s I had blisters on my hands!! My goal is to bake 150 pizza's, after this weekend I only have 59 to go! My hockey club also helps me a lot. They allowed me to send a message to the sponsors of ISCA . A video of me has been shared via ISCA's social media and thanks to tips and tricks from various ISCA members I have already been able to take many further steps! Really nice and sweet from ISCA! On Monday, April 26, I gave a presentation to the Rotary Club of Tervuren. I was really very nervous and I started my presentation with shaking hands. But everyone was very sweet and LUCKILY the presentation went well and certainly paid off. I am now working hard for the litter campaign, which will take place on May 29. This is the next big action. I also have a sponsorship meeting next week that will hopefully lead to more. So let's wish for the best!! You will hear more about the outcome of my litter campaign and the sponsorship meeting in the next blog! Would you like to be kept informed of my blog via a mailing list and if you are not on it yet, send me a message and I will gladly add you!