Cedo Nulli students and primary school pupils play sports together at Woudestein Stadium

Students of the Cedo Nulli Social Faculty Association organised a Sports Day on Wednesday, at Excelsior Football Club’s Woudestein Stadium. During ‘Kicking it for kids’, around 45 children from the Jan Antonie Bijloo public primary school were able to play football and run sack races.

Alissa Hoogenboezem is chairperson of the first Community Committee of Cedo Nulli. The committee organises activities students can volunteer for in Rotterdam. She believes it’s wonderful to be able to help children from groups 4 to 8 with such a Sports Day. “We want to help children who can rarely visit a sports stadium to have a splendid day. The reason we choose the Jan Antonie Bijloo school is that it makes such an effort to help children with learning difficulties. Highly gifted children are also helped. The school was extremely enthusiastic about this event.”

Excelsior voucher

It’s no coincidence that the event was held in Woudestein Stadium, where building activities are in full swing. Alissa Hoogenboezem: “We raised the most money during the Erasmus Charity Run. That’s why we got a voucher from Excelsior, the event’s co-sponsor. The voucher entitled us to use of the club’s field for three hours. We had also hoped some of the players from the Excelsior team might be on hand, but unfortunately they were still on holiday.”

It was a useful day not only for the children, says Hoogenboezem. “For members of our student association it’s also very instructive to undertake community services. Coming into contact with a varied target group allows them to get to know themselves better. We also hope that students will be encouraged by this event to do more for society. As the Social Sciences faculty association we feel we have an obligation to organise ‘social’ activities. Not only do we want to study the social world, we want to help it too.”