Hello to one and all,

As the year draws to a close, one always looks back at the best memories of the year. I will never forget the huge buzz of excitement at the ESB on 7 May as 900 of us came together to celebrate EUROMARKT 2023!

What a day that was. I can still see the proud faces at all the brightly decorated market stalls and smell and taste the delicious home cooked food from 20 different countries. It was a delight to see lots of happy kids playing football and table tennis and trying out all the games and arts and crafts in the Gameland area. The really happy little ones were licking ice-pops with their painted faces and trying to hold onto their balloons. It was pure joy standing and listening to the excited voices of people talking and laughing with the beats of our Cuban DJ in the background. 

It was a lot of hard work but a great pleasure being the Co-ordinator of this amazing ESB community event. My new joke is that I now have 900 new friends! Which is in fact quite true. I met a huge amount of brilliant new people throughout my volunteer work, who have become my friends. 

It was my very first time organizing such an event. A very steep learning curve, made even more difficult as the event had not taken place in a few years. Plus, I was new to the Netherlands and to the ESB. I jumped in at the deep end, had a few nervous moments along the way, but came out laughing on the other side of it. I was really touched by the help and support of so many kind people along the way (especially my heroes Roy and Vincent). 

I am very proud that in excess of EUR 4,000 profit was raised on the day. The Parents Association Committee (PAC) have made these funds available to all parents and teachers for projects via the Community Fund. Not many applications have been received so far, so there’s lots of money still left in the pot.

Many people are asking me about Euromarkt 2024 at the moment. It is in your hands!! I am happy to hand over the baton to a new leader. Right now, PAC are looking to form an organizing committee. If you are interested in being the overall co-ordinator, part of the committee or supporting the event in any way, please sign up HERE immediately, as planning needs to get underway.  Trust me, if I can do it, so can you. Team work makes the dream work.

The next event will be much easier to plan and run with a solid handover from me, and also support from PAC with the budgeting, communication and so on.

Let me sign off with a HUGE thank you to the dream team of EUROMARKT 2023 – Allen, Anne, Annikki, Bettina, Indre, Jordi and Tina. 

All the best,

Helena Domeyer

(proud mama to 3 kids in Little Europe, P5 and S2)

PS I am not disappearing – you’ll find me in the PAC store room and see me around school distributing sports t-shirts 😊

PPS Wishing you all health, happiness and lots of laughter in the New Year 2024!

Note: Euromarkt 2024 … proposed date is … 5th May 2024 (11am-4pm at School)