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CELEBRATING DIVERSITY ON GERMAN UNITY DAY
by Carol Harbers
A brownie for shooting a basket ? With the clever idea of both raising money for our local charity Hanseatic Help AND sharing something of our culture ( basketball and brownies ), the AWCH attracted close to 700 visitors to our booth , co-sponsored with the US Consulate in Hamburg , at the German Unity Day Festival on October 3 , marking thirty-three years of German re-unification . Our goal , which was to celebrate the political , economic , and cultural ties between the US and Germany , to share a bit of our culture , to make the AWCH visible in the community , and to attract new members was certainly met !
Showcasing cultural diversity , whether found within the German Länder or represented by the more than 190 different nationalities living in Hamburg , was an important goal of the festival with the theme “ Open Horizons .” In his opening speech , Hamburg ’ s mayor and Acting Bundestag President Dr . Peter Tschentscher acknowledged that , although the reunification of East and West Germany is still ongoing , reconstruction work since 1990 has succeeded on a historic scale , “… giving us confidence that we can also overcome the daunting problems facing us today .” He went on to stress that experiencing diverse cultures releases creativity and new ideas , which are necessary for developing strategies to successfully face the future .
For a small donation , AWCH members enticed festival attendees to try their luck at shooting a basket . Ranging in age from two to ninety , our participants showed off their talents and were rewarded with a delicious brownie from Jeff ’ s Cheesecake ( causing some confusion ) donated by the US Consulate . Donations were collected for Hanseatic Help — and 700 brownies were distributed ! In addition to several AWCH members , Deputy Consul General Abigail
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