This year, for the eleventh time, Westfalen Weser Energie launched the campaign “Ideas become reality – 100 support packages for associations in the region”. The aim of the annual campaign is to support particularly exemplary activities and innovative ideas of associations. This year, more than 130 associations applied with their projects, of which 100 received a funding package. Twelve projects were awarded as lighthouses for the region, including the lighthouse project “Forum Anja Niedringhaus”.
Once again this year, innovative approaches and ideas were sought that can be implemented in a timely manner. The aim of the FAN project is to develop the Tillyhaus building, which has been vacant for a long time, into a cultural and meeting place for contemporary photography. It is to be dedicated to the memory of the photojournalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Anja Niedringhaus, who was born in Höxter in 1965 and murdered in Afghanistan in 2014. The jury put 5000 euros in the sponsorship package of the association members.
“Enthusiasm, compassion and initiative have been internalised by the people who engage in voluntary work and express these qualities in their projects, and the joy of volunteering also seems to have remained unbroken over the years,” Dr Stephan Nahrath, Managing Director of Westfalen Weser Energie, emphasised in his laudatory speech.
