Press release -
Bowspirit - What is the meaning behind the name?
We are convinced that our young guests are something very special - precisely because of the curve ball that life supposedly threw at them.
We see them as the rough diamonds of our future society. Even if people in their environment and perhaps even they themselves may hardly believe this is possible when they come aboard the ship, these children and youth belong in the first row - right up at the front.
A "bowsprit" (without the "i" between the "p" and "r") is the spar that extends beyond the prow of the traditional sailing ship and is firmly anchored to the hull. In essence, it is the foremost stationary part in the bow area (on which the movable jib boom can still be attached if necessary).
Ergo: The bowsprit is the real "tip" of the ship … and that's where our idea comes in …
Anyone who has ever stood on the bow of a ship - and it doesn't have to have been on a sailing ship - knows there is a very special atmosphere there:
Behind you is the ship with all its bustling activity, none of which you can see or hear from up here at the very tip, and in front of you, there is nothing but the vast, endless sea and the horizon - freedom...!
And that is - watch out, here comes the wordplay - the bowspirit. The feeling of being at the very tip of the bow.
If you haven't had the chance to experience this yourself, you probably remember two key scenes from the 1997 film adaptation of "Titanic", starring Kate Winslet (as Rose) and Leonardo DiCaprio (as Jack) in the leading roles...:
When Jack goes to the bow of the TITANIC for the first time and stands on the railing, he ecstatically and jubilantly shouts: "I'm the king of the world...".
In a later scene, when Jack leads a blindfolded Rose to the bow, climbs up on the railing and takes off the blindfold, she joyfully shouts "Jack - I'm flying..."!
This feeling of …
"I'm the king of the/my world"
"I'm at the very forefront in my life (again)"
… is what we want to convey to our young guests after they have gone through trauma and/or illness.
Every Bowspirit Kid will - safely and securely - have the opportunity to experience this "bowspirit" feeling during his/her stay on board. A once in a lifetime experience!
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Topics
- Health Organisations
The Bowspirit Kids Group was founded in spring 2018 in Lübeck, Germany. Our activities focus on the creation of a maritime holiday and recreation camp that will give sick and traumatised children and their siblings - often called the "shadow children" - the opportunity to have fun and take a recreation from the illness. To this aim, we want to take advantage of the mobility of a passenger ferry to be able to operate outside of the base location in order to present the Bowspirit Kids Group and its work worldwide and to initiate further projects based on the guiding theme of a "recreation from illness".
The group has two companies - the non-profit company Bowspirit Kids gemeinnützige GmbH (www.bowspirit-kids.org) and the commercially managed Bowspirit Management GmbH (www.bowspirit-management.com), which are intertwined under company law in such a way that the profits generated cannot be distributed to shareholders, but are directed towards the overarching charitable objective.
The Bowspirit Kids Group intends not to base its activities solely on classical donations, but also to raise financial resources through social events and business sponsorships. In the fourth quarter of 2018, the campaign "The world's largest floating pinboard" was launched as kick-off event.
