“A Wonderful Gift” — Boarding School Council Hosts First “Steinmühlen Senior Café”

On Sunday, February 26, 2023, the sky is a brilliant blue over Steinmühle, and the sun is finally shining again after many gray days. The Steinmühle Boarding School Council eagerly awaits the arrival of their guests. This afternoon, the 13-member Board of the Boarding School has invited guests to the “Senior Café” for the very first time.
Flashback: Viviana Leege, who has been at Steinmühle for five years and is chair of the boarding school council, boarding school director Anke Muszynski, and Angela Schönemann from the “Arbeit und Bildung e.V.” association are sitting together and discussing their next joint project.

Start of the collaboration in 2021: “Participating with dignity in Marburg”
In 2021, Steinmühle supported the association’s “Participating with Dignity in Marburg” project for the first time. The boarding school community lovingly handcrafted over 100 Christmas packages for this initiative and personally delivered the gifts to senior citizens in the region, together with Ms. Schönemann. The hand-designed cards and the Christmas bags filled with treats were very well received.
“Everyone was really happy about the gifts; we had many special encounters, and it was moving to see the joy on their faces,” says Fabian (16), a member of the boarding school council who helped organize the 2022 campaign. However, due to the cold weather and the contact restrictions in place at the time, they could only spend a short time together each time. “We felt it would be nice to spend more time with the seniors and be able to chat in a relaxed setting,” says boarding school council president Viviana (18). That’s how the idea for the “Steinmühlen Senior Café” was born.”

“These days, seniors often lack opportunities to get out of their daily routines. They want to participate in life, to be noticed and valued. Through our project ‘Participating with Dignity,’ we support people living alone between the ages of 60 and 98. For this group of people, Sundays are often the worst days of the week. The senior café is a wonderful gift for everyone involved on so many levels and fosters intergenerational encounters on an equal footing,” said Ms. Schönemann.

“We’ve all gotten a few years younger today.”

And now they’re here—the first guests of the “Senior Café.” They’ve come from Marburg and the surrounding area and were picked up from their homes by a specially organized shuttle service and brought to the Steinmühle. One of these volunteer drivers is Friederike Haack (83). She graduated from Steinmühle in 1966 and has brought along plenty of photos and stories for today’s gathering. The boarding school’s tea room smells wonderfully of fresh cake, and in no time at all, the ice is broken. Seniors and young people sit together in a relaxed atmosphere and enjoy their time together. “It was so refreshing to see how the young people reached out to us; we all felt a few years younger during our time at Steinmühle,” says Ms. Utschig, who, at 93, is the oldest guest at the senior café.
“It was a really nice and relaxing afternoon; next time we’ll definitely be able to sit outside in the sun and go for a walk,” says Viviana (18), already making plans for the next “Steinmühlen Senior Café.”

Boarding School Council—What’s It All About?
The Boarding School Council consists of 13 students in grades 8–13. Each of the boarding school’s six residential groups democratically elects a representative to the Boarding School Council. They meet once a week to plan and organize various activities. “Our goal is, on the one hand, to strengthen the community at the boarding school and, on the other hand, to give something back to society,” says Nico (20), a member of the Boarding School Council who has been at the school since 2020.
Patric Hahn, who has been an integral part of the educational team for nine years, adds: “The boarding school council is intended to actively promote democracy, tolerance, and participation within the boarding school community. The experience of self-efficacy plays a crucial role in this process.”