Fun day out for youngsters at SOS Children's Villages rather than gifts for management

122 children were happy to receive an early Christmas present.

Seven years ago, at Hager Group we decided to support a charitable cause and treat children in need to a fun day out rather than spend the money on gifts to management teams present at our annual Symposium. This tradition has developed over the years since 2013, we now invite the boys and girls from three SOS Children's Villages in the immediate vicinity of our locations to a day out. Over the years the youngster have been to Amnéville Zoo and a discovery museum called Le Vaisseau in Strasbourg.

This year, 122 boys and girls from the SOS Children's Villages in Obernai in France and Eisenberg & Merzig in Germany enjoyed a trip to Europa Park in Rust at the end of October; almost 40 parents came along too. Youngsters from Merzig were already at Europa Park the night before due to the distance and got to spend the night in a hotel near the park. For many of the children this was the first highlight of their trip, yet it certainly wasn't the end of the story as every year for Halloween Europa Park is beautifully decorated. Besides the many attractions and rides, there were more than 180,000 pumpkins and ghostly creatures to discover.

As an additional surprise, there was a voucher for all the children to redeem in one of the Europa Park shops so they could take home a souvenir of their day with Hager Group. "I could never have made this trip possible for my children without the support of Hager Group," thanked a single mother who lives and works as a trainee in the SOS Children's Village. In addition to the gratitude of the teachers, it was above all the great joy of the children who were with us that made our event a success again this year.

If you would like to learn more about the work of the SOS Children's Villages, please click here.