Fundraising Eleven-year-old Bonn girl gives up presents to help petting zoo
Plittersdorf · Eleven-year-old Nele Bekker from Plittersdorf supports a petting zoo in Cologne-Zündorf with a Christmas bazaar during the Corona crisis.
Nele Bekker doesn't really lack animals in her immediate environment. Two cats and two turtles belong to the eleven-year-old, and she regularly walks the neighbour's dog. And yet, in 2015, when she visited "Rolf's Streichelzoo" in Cologne-Zündorf for the first time with her mother Yvonne, she was hooked. It wasn't just one visit, since then the Plittersdorf resident has been actively involved with the association. "After the first holiday programme, it was clear to Nele that she also wanted to be an animal sponsor, namely for kangaroo Max," says Yvonne Bekker.
At some point, her daughter had the idea that she would forgo the presents from her friends at her birthday party and ask for donations for Max instead. "This has become a tradition," says the mother. Since the Corona crisis also hit the Cologne association, Nele had thought of supporting it with a Christmas bazaar too. "However, you had to place your order online, and we then delivered, observing all the rules," says the eleven-year-old. There was a choice of colourful unicorn bath salts, Nutella-flavoured lip balm and sweet Father Christmases made of yeast dough.
The mother reveals that the late riser always set an extra alarm clock to work off her orders. 800 Euro were collected this way, which she now handed over to the operators Rolf Effenberger and Holger Peters for the new arrivals Samu and Knut, two mini donkeys. Many of the animals come from farms that do not keep them in a manner appropriate to their species. Nele says about her commitment: "Everyone should get involved in some way. I do it for the animals - with all my heart.“
Original text: Silke Elbern
Translation: Mareike Graepel
