YOUR FORUM FOR PLAY, SPORTS UND LEISURE AREAS
“We would like to fill as many people as possible in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region with enthusiasm for movement and an active life. An alla hopp! facility brings together generations through pleasure in movement,” says Dietmar Hopp. Moreover, the benefactor believes the campaign is a great opportunity for the whole region: “The great importance of sport and movement to our health is well known. With a movement and meeting space, a municipality can offer its citizens a sport and play attraction and create a meeting point where all generations can relax”. Dietmar Hopp emphasises the fact that alla hopp! enhances citizens’ quality of life and also appeals to people who are not yet members of an association. The foundation is planning to invest € 40 million in the alla hopp! campaign. The municipalities make the terrain available (about 5,000 square metres is recommended) and later they are responsible for maintenance.
Movement for all
Each alla hopp! facility consists of three or four modules: an activity trail for all who enjoy doing sport, a play area for smaller children, a playground and movement area for schoolchildren and an optional fourth module for young athletes. The facilities are intended to be close to residential areas and have good transport connections. Sanitary installations should already be present nearby or are provided.
The modules
The first module, an activity trail, is aimed at people of all ages and fitness levels. The concept behind the trail is a kind of circuit training in which at different points the whole locomotor system is addressed and trained. Numerous pieces of equipment are “low-threshold” and can also be used by older or disabled people. Easily comprehensible signs explain the ways in which beginners and the more advanced can use the equipment.
The second module is the children’s playground. Younger children can play here, while also training their motor skills and sensory perception. To be maximally independent of the weather, the concept includes a pavilion with seating and sanitary facilities.
In the third module, the playground and movement area, which is close to nature, schoolchildren can find space for free play, romping, climbing, moving hand over hand and balancing. The offering is designed to be both interesting and challenging, meaning that the children are encouraged to develop their mobility and motor skills. With this module, the concept allows for creativity and involvement: in planning workshops, the playground and movement area is designed jointly with the children.
If a sufficiently large and suitable area is available, a fourth module – a movement area for young athletes – can be added, for example for inline skaters, skaters or bikers.
Goal of the campaign
With the alla hopp! campaign, the Dietmar Hopp Foundation is building a bridge between its four areas it funds: sport, medicine, social welfare and education.
The Dietmar Hopp Foundation’s new campaign is setting the whole region in motion! alla hopp! is thus achieving three goals:
Promoting movement: alla hopp! would like to fill people of all ages and levels of fitness, who are disabled or not, with enthusiasm for movement, and motivate them. The underlying idea: movement together without having to think about performance.
Making it easier to meet: alla hopp! creates a space for people to meet, bringing generations together through the pleasure of movement.
Protecting health: through movement, young and old can make an active contribution to keeping themselves healthy.
“The new campaign is intended to give a lot of pleasure to the people of all generations living in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region,” said Dietmar Hopp.
An opportunity for the region
The movement offering is not only attractive for all citizens of the metropolitan region, but will also appeal to and motivate associations, kindergartens, schools and establishments for older people near to the alla hopp! locations. Daniel Sautter, responsible for the Rhine-Neckar sport region: “alla hopp! is a real gain, because the campaign motivates our region’s citizens to participate actively in sport, while also promoting active citizenship.”
127 municipalities are interested in having an alla hopp! facility
The deadline for applications for the alla hopp! campaign passed during the night of Tuesday, 1 October 2013. 127 cities, towns and municipalities threw their hat into the ring. They were interested in gaining a movement and meeting facility from the Dietmar Hopp Foundation. Since the campaign was announced on 13 June 2013, all 290 municipalities of the Rhine-Neckar region have been eligible to apply. “Our aim is to set the metropolitan region in motion and involve all generations. We are very pleased that the alla hopp! campaign has been so well-received by the municipalities and the population!” said founder Dietmar Hopp.
“The applications have been coming in from all over the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region,” reports Sandra Zettel, project manager of the alla hopp! initiative. “That’s marvellous, because our campaign is intended to cover the whole region. When reaching our decisions, we look for an even distribution, so that everyone can be near to an alla hopp!. We are looking forward to seeing which municipalities will be the leading contenders.”
The interest in alla hopp! is great. A clear sign that the municipalities are very keen to promote the coming together of young and old.
The submitted documents are now first being checked to ensure that they are correct and complete. It will then be the responsibility of a committee of the Foundation to assess those applications. The involvement of citizens in the municipality plays a role in this assessment, as do e.g. the location, infrastructure and urban planning aspects of the site for which the municipality has made an application. These criteria are reflected in the online questionnaire that was to be filled in by the municipalities applying.
The final decision will be announced by the Dietmar Hopp Foundation on 5 June 2014.
Interview with founder Dietmar Hopp about the start of the initiative
What is alla hopp! ?
Dietmar Hopp: With alla hopp! we want to fill as many people as possible in the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region with enthusiasm for movement and an active life. My foundation is donating 19 movement and meeting facilities for all generations and inviting towns, cities and municipalities of the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region to apply. The sites should be about 5,000 square metres in size. The facilities are suitable for everyone, regardless of how fit they are. Children, young people, adults, families, senior citizens and sportsmen and women. An alla hopp! facility brings together generations through the joy of movement and consists of four modules.
How do you ensure that the equipment of a movement and meeting space also really promotes health?
Dietmar Hopp: When designing the equipment, we worked closely together with experts from a wide variety of fields. At each facility, there are signs explaining how to use the movement trail that can be easily understood by both beginners and the more advanced.
alla hopp! is intended to enthuse people for sport. Why do you also call these movement facilities meeting spaces?
Dietmar Hopp: Movement together is more fun. Our concept is directed towards people of every age, however fit they are. In addition to promoting movement, we also want to encourage people of all generations to meet each other and enjoy sporting activity together. For many years, my foundation has been supporting youth sport in the region’s associations. With this initiative, we would also like to reach people who are not members of associations.
What are you doing to ensure that the movement and meeting facilities will actually be used?
Dietmar Hopp: Here the qualities of the facility speak for themselves: they are close to where people live, easily reached, distributed across the whole region, can partly be used in all weather … and there’s so much more. On the other hand, alla hopp! is a holistic concept for a wide range of users. For example, integration into the social life of the municipality and the possibility of citizens’ involvement into their design are planned.
In what ways do the municipalities benefit from a movement and meeting facility?
Dietmar Hopp: The great importance of sport and movement to our health is well known. With an alla hopp! facility, a municipality can offer its citizens an attractive sport and play opportunity and create a meeting place where people of all generations can relax.
In the opinion of the Dietmar Hopp Foundation, what is special about alla hopp! ?
Dietmar Hopp: This is our biggest initiative so far and it builds a bridge between all four areas that my foundation supports: sport, medicine, social welfare and education. Everyone in the region can profit from this.
Why are there exactly 18 alla hopp! facilities?
Dietmar Hopp: At the start of the campaign, the Dietmar Hopp Foundation had been in existence for 18 years. The number 18 also allows us to set up alla hopp! facilities throughout the metropolitan region.
Finally, a personal question. You are a committed entrepreneur, promoter of sport and benefactor. You must have many obligations. Is there any time left for sport?
Dietmar Hopp: A good question. Every day I spend many hours at my desk, at my computer and attending meetings. But I always make time to sometimes start the day on the treadmill. And I have made up my mind to devote more time to my hobbies and to sport. When I was younger, that meant football and tennis. Nowadays I play golf.
About the Dietmar Hopp Foundation
The Dietmar Hopp Foundation was established in 1995 to facilitate the implementation of not-for-profit projects. The foundation’s assets consist of SAP stocks that Dietmar Hopp contributed from his private holdings. Since its establishment, the Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in Europe, has distributed about € 330 million. Not-for-profit projects in the areas of sport, medicine, social welfare and education are supported. To create considerable and sustainable benefits in all four of these areas, the goals set out in the Dietmar Hopp Foundation’s statutes are partly achieved through targeted initiatives. The main focus of the promotional activities is the Rhine-Neckar metropolitan region with which Dietmar Hopp feels a special connection. The Dietmar Hopp Foundation is a member of the Association of German Foundations, the Zukunft Metropolregion Rhein-Neckar association and the Sportregion Rhein-Neckar e.V.
Photography: Dietmar Hopp Foundation
