Under bright sunshine, the passenger ship Tamara carried about 80 young people, 15 student teachers, and 35 corporate mentors, as well as a few guests, across the Rhine. With the hot weather, the Rettbergsaue was the perfect spot for a picnic. On the island, in the shade under large trees, with cool drinks and a delicious finger food buffet, the participants were able to enjoy themselves. During the meal, the groups sat together with their mentors on picnic blankets and chatted about the past school year, their recent graduation achievements, and their plans for the future. 

After the picnic, there were water, ball, and sand games—perfect for the setting—where the WiesPaten groups could prove themselves as a team alongside their teachers and mentor companies: On the beach, towers were built using cups filled with sand, and tennis balls rolled from A to B through skillfully arranged plastic channels. The table tennis round-robin and SpikeBall game were all about keeping the ball in play for as long as possible. Despite the hot temperatures, participants kept their cool while tackling the WiesPaten quiz: When was WiesPaten founded? How many current WiesPaten teachers were once WiesPaten students themselves? Which industries are represented in the WiesPaten corporate network—and which ones are “missing”? 

IHK President Jörg Brömer is the patron of WiesPaten and joined the group from the Trafohaus Youth Center on their outing. He said: “Here you can see firsthand why WiesPaten has been successful for over 15 years. At WiesPaten, the young people and the mentors from the companies become real teams; everyone learns from each other, and it’s just plain fun.” During the raffle at the end, Brömer served as the lucky charm: The grand prize was a 100-euro gift certificate for an ice cream parlor in town, donated by the R+V Foundation. In addition, two groups won the “Werwolf” game, which is always a hit at WiesPaten.

“It was an all-around successful event, where we, as a Biebrich-based company, once again really enjoyed the view from the other side of the Rhine,” said Jutta Rickmeyer from Huhle Stahlbau. The company attended the celebration with three apprentices and, during the picnic, looked back on three years of collaboration with the WiesPaten youth—10th-graders from Riehl School—as part of the WiesPaten program.

“We were only able to handle the logistics for the outing with so many people thanks to the dedicated support of a team from Soka-Bau as part of ‘Wiesbaden Engagiert!’,” said project manager Karoline Deißner from the Youth Work Department at the Office for Social Work. “It was a real challenge in the heat, but everyone pitched in. Everyone enjoyed working together so much that we’ve already made plans to meet again next year.”

WiesPaten is a pillar of the “Wiesbaden Engagiert!” strategy of the Office of Social Work. The program helps young people in Wiesbaden successfully navigate their school careers. Student teachers and committed WiesPaten companies offer the young people valuable additional support—and benefit from the experience themselves. Joint events such as the summer festival also promote interaction across the different groups. Further information is available at wiespaten.de (opens in a new tab). Questions can be directed to the Corporate Cooperation Office at the Wiesbaden Office of Social Work at (0611) 315466 and wiespaten@wiesbaden.