Ten young students in Aalborg colleges and other educational institutions received an extra seasonal greeting, when the Guild for the 27th time gave out this year’s “Grants of Good Spirit”.

”These grants can’t be applied for. It is the educational institutions themselves that nominate the receivers according to the grants’ rules: The receiver should be a student or an apprentice, who by his/hers good spirits, happy disposition and positive outlook has been helping create good vibrations and good fellowship, and thereby inspired teachers and comrades to work in a positive and pleasant way.  

“And the receivers should not necessarily be specially hardworking or clever, but of course that wouldn’t hurt” as the chief bencher, Niels Voss Hansen, pointed out, when he and some of the benchers visited Hasseris Gymnasium to donate a grant. The benchers also donated a grant to an apprentice in Salling’s Bakery.

In other educational institutions the grants and cheques are handed out by the schools themselves - often at the final celebration before the Christmas holidays. But everywhere the receivers have been told that the money should be spent in the spirit, they are given: to help the joy flourish in the happy town of Aalborg,<<<

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Photo: Jens Morten

31 happy representatives for different social, humanitarian and cultural institutions and a few individuals in Aalborg have received a small extra contribution to their work.Christian the Fourth´s Guild´s Foundation has at the annual distribution with glögg and apple dumplings in Duus´ Wine Cellar in Aalborg donated almost 100,000 DKK to the many activities with special focus on the “voluntary, unpaid work to benefit the less privileged groups in society” as it is stated in the Guild´s statutes.

The Foundation´s capital comes from Christian the Fourth´s Guild and the about 8,000 members from all over the world. It is the yield from this capital that is donated – but due to the actual low level of interest rates the Guild has had to support the Foundation.

“We are only able to donate the 100,000 DKK thanks to a not unsubstantial contribution from the Guild, for which we are very grateful“ said the chairman of the Foundation, former mayor Kaj Kjær. The 31 recipients each got between 1,000 and 5,000 DKK. The money is meant as an extra pat on the shoulder to the social, humanitarian and cultural work that is done in our society. The Foundation does not support travels, studies abroad and parties.   

“It is the aim of the board to support as many purposes as possible. We want to appreciate the work that is done. When we want to reward many, the grants will be small. We would like to donate more money, if our means would allow it” said Kaj Kjær at the ceremony´s end.

There are always many various receivers: for example Idrætsforeningen for handicappede which among other things arranges athletic school for handicapped persons in Aalborg. Dansk Røde Kors who runs a club for women with special problems. Kamillus is a support group for KamellianerGårdens Hospice. IOGT which helps alcohol abusers. Aalborg Pensionistorkester whose members “play instead of eating pills”. The Positive which is a club for retired people with physical and mental problems. Aalborg Mandskor whose members - with an average age of 75 years - entertain gratuitously for rest homes, got a donation. So did the Tobacco Girls from Obel´s Tobacco Factory – and they repaid by giving a cigar to the Board. And two day care mothers, who have bought an allotment garden where the children grow vegetables to cook and eat, also got a donation.

The Foundation´s board consists – besides Kaj Kjær – of the Guild´s chief bencher, Niels Voss Hansen, Aalborghallen´s CEO, Ernst Trillingsgaard, the day to day administrator of the Foundation, Per Svensson, and former head of culture in Nordjyllands Amt and present member of Region Nordjylland´s board and former member of Aalborg Byråd, cand.jur. Vibeke Gamst. She is new on the foundation´s board and succeeds former minister of ecclesiastical affairs, Mette Madsen, who died in 2015.

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Foto: Jens Morten

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Photo 1:

Some of the happy receivers of support from Christian the Fourth´s Foundation

Photo 2:

Members of Aalborg Jægerklubs Blæsergruppe repaid by blowing some hunting signals.

Photo 3:

Tobakspigerne fra Obel said thank you with a cigar to Ernst Trillingsgaard.  

The actors from the Circus Revue – who each year end the season here in Aalborg – have for many years been members of Christian the Fourth´s Guild. But the musicians and technicians from the Revue has never been initiated. That state of affairs were remedied this year when the Circus Revue in September gave a show in Aalborg Congress & Cultural Center.>>>

The festivities in Rebild are tradition – and so is Christian the Fourth´s Guild in Aalborg. These traditions meet once a year on the Fourth of July, when the leading dignitaries of the Rebild festivities on the morning before the events in Rebild Hills are initiated into the Guild.

As usual the initiation took place in Duus´ Vinkjælder in Jens Bangs Stenhus. This year the main speaker was the former Danish foreign minister and present chairman of the UN General Assembly, Mogens Lykketoft, who together with some twenty other members-to-be had to sit with an empty glass, while the Guild benchers proclaimed “our thirst first”.

After the initiation and the traditional walk round Jens Bangs Stenhus, food and drink for everybody were served: red sausages, beer and snaps – the latter is in the Guild called potato-juice.

Mogens Lykketofts wife, Mette Holm, was also initiated and so were the other main speaker, Rune Hørby, the chief of tourism in the “Danish” town of Solvang, California, Jeff Paaske, and Stephen De Vincent, the partner of USA´s ambassador to Denmark. The ambassador himself, Rufus Gifford, was initiated two years ago and was both last year and also this year among the onlookers. Youth speaker was Victoria Due from Aalborg. She has just returnet from Oregon where she has been a exchange student for one year.

Also as an onlooker was the new-appointed Mayor for a Day, Poul Pedersen. He is from Thisted and got his education as a landscape gardener at Thomsens Planteskole in Aalborg and he has since the late 1960´es been living near Chicago where he has founded a large garden center and nursery. Poul Pedersen was initiated into the Guild about 30 years ago.<<<

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Photo: Jens Morten og Fini Ryming