Help for traumatized soldiers: Proceeds from bottle caps support dog training
Created: 01/11/2023 07:07
By: Ingrid Zeilinger
Bucket number eleven is filled with bottle caps.
Irmgard Strohmair collects them for the Paws campaign.
This supports the training of assistance dogs for soldiers traumatized after operations.
© imu
Irmgard Strohmair is well-known in town as a Bixl-grandma with her cigarette cans.
Now she has a new project.
She collects bottle caps for the Soldiers' Aid Agency's Paws campaign.
Over ten large buckets have already come together.
Fürstenfeldbruck – making the city a bit more beautiful and worth living in – that is Irmgard Strohmair’s credo.
Especially littered benches and corners in Bruck are a thorn in her side.
She clears away the garbage.
So that cigarette butts don't end up on the street, she has set up tin cans in the city centre.
She and some sponsors empty these regularly.
The fact that the cans are always full encourages the senior citizen, who has earned the name Bixl-Grandma, in her actions.
The paws campaign
Now she has started another project.
She found out about the Bundeswehr's Paws campaign from friends.
This collects bottle caps and sells the raw material.
Assistance dogs are financed from the proceeds to support soldiers who need help to find their way back to everyday life after deployment.
(
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Strohmair doesn't just collect herself. She also visits restaurants and pubs in Bruck and Emmering.
"Four of them collect for good causes themselves," says the pensioner.
In the other restaurants you can take the bottle caps with you.
She fills these into large ten-liter buckets.
She calculated that 4700 grams fit into one.
She brings two buckets a week to the Ameisenstüberl.
The restaurant is an acceptance point, as landlord Markus Droth explains.
At the Razorbacks
From there, Heike Schmidtke, who is active with the Fursty Razorbacks, takes the corks and brings them to an acquaintance who works as a teacher.
The acquaintance had once asked Schmidtke to set up a basket for the bottle caps at the sale.
Schmidtke was enthusiastic about the campaign and joined the large bottle cap chain.
"Why should they end up in the trash?"
The buckets finally reach the Fürstenfeldbruck air base.
This is one of 70 Bundeswehr collection points for the Paws campaign, reports Alexander Schmidt.
He initiated the project in 2019 with his family.
For depression
Smith knows what he's talking about.
Because he himself is one of the soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder.
And he has seen how the therapy dogs – officially they are called assistance dogs – help the soldiers back into a regular life.
"When you're depressed, the dog sits next to you, nudges you and encourages you to go outside," explains Schmidt.
If he notices that his master is having another nightmare, he wakes him up.
The four-legged family member also plays a social role.
“The soldier knows he is not alone, he can continue to socialize and go to work.” That is why the animals are so important.
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Depending on the daily rate
The training of such an assistance dog costs up to 25,000 euros.
The Paws campaign wants to support those affected financially and thus finance part of it.
But it is also clear that the soldier has to take care of food and housing.
Since 2021, the Soldiers' Aid Organization has been responsible for coordination.
The proceeds from the crown caps sold go to a special donation account.
Some locations, such as the Brucker Air Base, give these to the recycler and transfer them, others also bring the corks to the Bundeswehr Logistics School in Garlstedt.
100 to 150 euros per ton of crown caps are included depending on the daily price.
Therefore, Schmidt is grateful to every collector.
People like Irmgard Strohmair, who already has the eleventh bucket full of bottle caps.
And there are other ideas: environmental advisor Tanja de Azambuja wants to upcycle some bottle caps and sell them as pendants - these proceeds should also go to the Paws campaign.
You can find more current news from the district of Fürstenfeldbruck at Merkur.de/Fürstenfeldbruck.