Meet Up 2022 - What a pleasure!

Back to the beginning: It's Friday, May 20th. The first Caddies arrive shortly before 2 p.m. and within no time a queue forms all the way to the road. The camping meadow next to the Hotel Rhönfeeling in the Thuringian Rhön fills up quickly: While Carina, Anna and helper Vanessa welcome the participants and equip them with goodie bags, Nadine assigns the 56 Caddies their parking spaces. Very accurately, as we discover thanks to a drone shot later :-) 

Almost everyone is there by 4 pm. As always, the participants quickly get into conversation - they exchange information about their set-ups and are happy that it's finally starting. Old acquaintances as well as new faces. 

We were largely spared the forecast thunderstorms, only two showers lasting about half an hour hit us. Thanks to a large tent in the middle of the site, we are all well protected (except for Luz, who uses the rain for a spontaneous dance performance :-)) and so the first barbecue evening is even more convivial. Around two o'clock in the morning, the last ones crawl into their Caddies before the Saturday programme starts at 9 o'clock the next morning.

Tim starts with his electricity workshop and explains different possibilities for power supply in the Caddy, two employees from the regional German Red Cross give a one and a half hour first aid course. At lunchtime, Susette invites us to the outdoor kitchen: lovingly prepared recipes and pre-packaged ingredients await the 17 participants in her workshop, who gather to cook together. Immediately afterwards, Vanessa explains in her workshop what Instagram reels are all about, why they are so important at the moment and reveals some tips for creating the short videos. 

In the afternoon, Nadine and Anna set up the Caddyroamers shop and sell raffle tickets for the big fundraising raffle in the evening, Kati ties fruit nets with the participants in her macramé workshop and Carina explains the basics of photography and image editing.

While some take part in the workshops, the others sit comfortably together and chat, cook, relax and watch the other expansions. 

New this year was a small competition where all participants could vote for their favourite trolley in three categories: The prize for the most beautiful decoration went to Annette, the coolest feature was Luz & Lisa's hammock on the roof, and the title of "storage space wonder" was awarded to Christin's Caddy. 

The run on the raffle tickets is very big again this year - and rightly so, because there are really great prizes again! We would like to take this opportunity to thank all our partners who have made their products available for our donation raffle. At the evening raffle, there is once again a lot of cheering and cheering - this part of the Meet Up has become a real highlight. In the end, 2,600€ were collected, which we donated to Entwicklung Hilft to support their work for Ukraine. 

The € 2,600 also include € 123.18 that participant Christin contributed through a special action. She provided us all with ice cream at the Meet Up: for a small donation, we were allowed to take a delicious refreshment from her cooler. 

The participation fees for the workshops of Tim, Susette, Kathi, Carina and Vanessa (minus material costs) also went entirely into the donation pot. 

The programme of the second day ended in the evening with a moving film screening of the Ocean Film Tour: It was about thirteen-year-old Shobe who, against all odds, is fighting for her dream of an own surf school for girls in Bangladesh. 

Afterwards, we end the evening partly around the campfire, partly on the spontaneously opened dance floor, before the fourth Meet Up ends the next day around noon after a short hike.

Our film screening was supported by the following partners: