The annual Summer Camp in Estonia aims to offer a joyful time to people with disabilities away from their everyday routine. It is also a valuable experience of social commitment for the volunteers. The diverse activities, the overall Johanniter spirit and the enthusiasm of international volunteers contribute to the enduring success of the camp.
Friedrich Kippenberg reports:
With almost continuous sunshine, the international Summer Camp took place again in the last week of July, approximately 20 km southwards to Reval/Tallinn. 28 cheerful and highly motivated volunteers came together from Estonia, Sweden, the Netherlands, Finland, France and Germany and spent an eventful and fulfilling week together with 24 Estonian guests with disabilities.
This year’s main responsibility was with the Posen-Wesprussian Genossenschat and Friedrich Kippenberg, who was supported by Floris van de Poll (NED), Victor Standertskjöld (FIN) and Simon Nordenskiöld (SWE). Unfortunately and unlike last year, we were unable to welcome any Canadian nor English, but we did, once again, have many Swedish and Finnish volunteers. Overall, there was a balanced number of volunteers from the countries that had already participated in the past and for the first time we were delighted to welcome three from France.
The Ambassador of the Sovereign Order of Malta, Mag. Manfred Ritter Mautner von Markhof in Tallinn was asked to provide two volunteers and two guests. We are very grateful for the financial support as well as the effort by Indrek Petersoo and Dagmar Meinberg. The summer camp began with a first aid course held by Kia von Brummer and there were two horseback riding lessons, a trip to the zoo, the theme park and visits from the firefighters and the local police from Saku for which we would like to thank once again. It is particularly nice to see that the police and firefighters are making their presentations more vivid and practical each year. A new item on the programme was the decoration of backpacks. These and a ‘Johanniitidne Abi Eestis’-emblem for ironing on the backpacks were donated by the Peeteli community in Tallinn. Many thanks to its director, Mati Sinisaar. In addition, football, table tennis, frisbee and arts and crafts shaped the week. Each day ended with the canon ‘Laudate Omnes Gentes’ and a campfire gathering with pancakes or stickbread.
The week was characterised by very joyful faces and rounded off with animal face painting, a disco on the last evening and ice cream on the day of the guests‘ departure. All volunteers then happily accepted the traditional invitation to a relaxed BBQ in the garden of the Estonian Evangelical Lutheran Church in Reval/Tallinn where everyone could look back on a successful week. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Patrik Göransson for this and for the two church services during the camp.
With 57 participants, the camp was relatively large. The group grew wonderfully together and internalised the spirit of the camp from the very beginning. A big compliment goes to all the volunteers, and I would like to thank the German volunteers in particular once again for their effort and wonderful memories.
We are very much looking forward to the summer camp 2026 where Sweden will be primarily responsible. The Steering Committee would like to express their sincere thanks for the support provided by JOIN, the foundation ‘Johanniitidne Abi Eestis‘ in Tallinn and the Johanniter.