Fundraising campaign at the Schäftlarn high school: students collect a record amount

Created: 08/08/2022, 10:30 am

By: Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss

Headmaster Wolfgang Sagmeister, who managed 43 laps in the end, was a brisk walker with walking sticks.

© Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss

The sum is unbelievable: The students and teachers of the Benedictine high school in Schäftlarn Monastery raised around 15,000 euros in a charity run for their partner school "Stella Maris" in India.

Schäftlarn - The Sternstunden campaign financed the construction of the new school in Mondikunta in the Khammam district in 2016 and 2018 - and the Schäftlarn high school had agreed to contribute to the running costs.

The partnership between the two institutions goes back to a meeting between Bishop Paul Maipan from India, who is very committed to education, and headmaster Wolfgang Sagmeister.

"The chance contact turned into friendship," says Prefect Franz Russer.

The clergyman kept traveling to Germany to visit friends and sponsors.

“And: Anyone who flew to Hyderabad as a friend of the bishop was shown Khammam, his schools and his social projects in his diocese.

Former students travel to India

In 2013, Dennis Deininger and David Straub, two recent high school graduates from Schäftlarn, accepted this invitation.

"Stella Maris" was still a fixed idea at that time, but it was an open door for the two travelers.

They enthusiastically reported about it back home.

Two years later, in 2015, the former students Georg Sibbel and Alex Wilde made their way to India - more precisely, to "their" construction site of the school, which is now a joint project of Sternstunden, Missio Munich, Bishop Paul Maipan and the Schäftlarner Gymnasium was.

All participants ran around the school grounds a total of 5607 times.

© Sabine Hermsdorf-Hiss

The abbot is also on his way

In 2016, the partner school was again the destination of some high school graduates and Sagmeister and Abbot Petrus Höhensteiger also packed their bags and traveled to the diocese of Khammam.

The exchange became more and more lively.

In 2018, the group of students from the P-Seminar traveled to India and created a donation brochure on their return.

In the meantime, Bishop Paul, Sagmeister and Abbot Petrus were able to celebrate the inauguration of the second floor of the Stella Maris School.

The foundation stone for the boarding school was also laid on this day directly at the Stella Maris School.

A return visit by the bishop and his secretary, Father Kiran, to the Isar Valley parish followed.

Partners have become friends

"We learned from each other in all the encounters," says Russer.

"In the course of time, partners have become friends." So it's no wonder that the whole school, from the fifth to the tenth grade, started with full commitment.

And the teachers didn't take long to ask either.

The most lucrative sponsorship contracts per round were negotiated.

"A colleague is an absolute Dortmund fan," reports teacher Johannes Huber.

"Against a certain surcharge, he was willing to run in the Bayern jersey."

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And then the time had come: "When the signal flap works," Sagmeister called into the microphone to the jeers of the students, "let's go." He himself set a good example.

"I had planned at least two rounds." And what was it?

Sagmeister trumped himself: he ran the route 43 times.