Running Toward the Future: Steinmühle’s Fall Festival Focuses on the New School Building

This gives the saying “Things are moving along at Steinmühle” a second, very timely meaning: This year’s Steinmühle Fall Festival reached its climax on Saturday with a charity run held near the construction site for the new school building. Students from Steinmühle, supported by their parents, “ran” to raise over 5,000 euros. The Steinmühle Rural School Camp Association is currently raising money for the interior furnishings of the new building through a fundraising campaign that has just begun; to this end, it has also launched the website www.steinmuehlen-unterstuetzer.de and compiled all the information in a small brochure.

 

High-quality raffle prizes

A few school classes also dedicated their booth activities to the new building project and successfully worked to raise small donations for the large construction fund. At the numerous other booths on the school grounds, a variety of topics were featured in the tried-and-true manner, presented through posters and by directly engaging the very large crowd. Winners of a raffle held by the Friends of the School Association were delighted to receive high-quality prizes. The sun shone down in its usual manner—good weather is a traditional part of the Steinmühlen Fall Festival, which is organized jointly by the school and the boarding school.

A Visit from a Prominent Political Figure

Local political figures also paid tribute to Steinmühle for its active efforts and its plan to finance the new building without public subsidies. In their speeches, Marburg’s mayor, Dr. Thomas Spies, and Hesse’s Minister of Finance, Dr. Thomas Schäfer, praised the school association’s courage and efforts toward the project, as well as its broader plans to establish an international program. Since the school association is financing the new building entirely without public subsidies, the Minister of Finance’s welcome check was particularly well received. Among the visitors at the school’s location on Steinmühlenweg in Cappeler, principals Björn Gemmer and Bernd Holly, along with School Association Executive Director Dirk Konnertz, also welcomed other political representatives, namely District Administrator Kirsten Fründt and Member of the Bundestag Dr. Stefan Heck. Many Steinmühle alumni gathered on the school grounds and enjoyed an evening get-together in a cheerful atmosphere. All guests were able to look back on the 2016–17 school year through the Steinmühle yearbook, which was hot off the press and also available online. Parents of future fifth-graders picked up the latest flyers for the lower grades.