Hildesheim, February 2025: KSM trainees donate Christmas market proceeds to Families in Need

The KSM trainees‘ sales campaign at the KSM Christmas market in December 2024 generated a tidy sum. On the occasion of the FiN annual meeting at Taktwerk in Hildesheim on February 13, 2025, training manager Jörg Gustke and the two commercial trainees, Emma and Pia, presented a donation check to the new FiN coordinator Jana Kuschel - the management of the KSM Castings Group had generously rounded up the sum to €500.

The idea was born during the preparations for the annual event. Sample pieces hand-cast by KSM trainees from the company‘s own training workshop were to be sold to visitors at the Christmas market on the Hildesheim factory premises for a small fee. The proceeds were to be donated to a good cause. And the idea was a hit. The shelves of the training workshop are now almost cleared and offer space for new small and large works of art.

“We are always happy to have motivated trainees and reward commitment. We have been promoting social commitment out of conviction for many years, especially for Families in Need, a foundation from the immediate neighborhood. Particularly because FiN was brought to life in the first place at our instigation, primarily by Thomas Buschjohann, and is still going strong today,” says Detmar Kampmann, COO of the KSM Castings Group.

In addition to FiN, the evening‘s guest of honour, Dr. Andreas Philippi, Lower Saxony‘s Minister for Social Affairs, Labour, Health and Equality, was not left empty-handed. The KSM trainees cast a pair of hands out of aluminum for him in their training workshop. The small gift was presented by Ulrike Zeuner, a member of the FiN board.

The keynote speech by the Minister of Health on the topic of child poverty as a health risk was also very much in the spirit of helping hands. In Germany, one in five children lives in poverty or is at risk of poverty, according to the KiGGS study on the health of children and young people in Germany.

Thomas Buschjohann, Chairman of the Foundation, welcomed the guests by telling a short story about FiN‘s commitment. Jana Kuschel, the new coordinator of the Families in Need Foundation since the beginning of this year, summarized the foundation‘s work in 2024. She pointed out the recurring difficulties faced by families affected by poverty, especially children and young people, which, in addition to scarce financial resources, also include a growing need for support services.

A moving highlight of the evening: The dance team from Unsere-Zukunft e.V. at the Hildesheim Culture and Education Center in the Arneken-Galerie, who rocked the hall together with trainer Romeo Balié.

Following the entertaining evening program, the guests took the opportunity to exchange ideas and network over a small snack in the Taktwerk premises.

The Families in Need Hildesheim – FiN Foundation supports children, young people and adolescents and their families in the Hildesheim region. FiN is a foundation that pools and multiplies forces, bringing together supporters and enablers. And FiN cooperates with Diakonie organizations, commercial companies, institutions and with individuals. They use their potential to support and promote families – so help comes from many sides!
Further information about FiN can be found at: fin-hildesheim.de.

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