100 Day Challenge: Week 5
A close friend of our family, who is a musician for the Berliner Philharmoniker, once said; “If with my music, I can make the world a little bit a better place, I will be a happy man and call my career a success”. In these challenging times we see so many people and businesses bringing some goodness and beauty to the world. It is what makes us cheerful and dream of better days.
I publish daily on my blog 100 day challenge and I’m sending you a weekly summary. By clicking on the underlined text, you can read the full story.
The Berliner Philharmoniker, one of the finest orchestras in the world, presents The Berlin Phil Series, a new online format which can be enjoyed in the Digital Concert hall every Saturday at 7 PM CET. Each episode offers a mixture of live chamber music and archive recordings of orchestral works. The Berliner Philharmoniker is also offering free access to its Digital Concert Hall for a month.
Museums worldwide are virtually opening their doors. My favorite are the Musei Vaticani from Rome, la Città Eterna. I had the privilege to study in this magnificent city for a year. Living near the Vatican, I visited the Vatican museums multiple times. Watching their tours makes me dream of strolling around in Rome, drinking a Capucinno in the shadow of the Pantheon and enjoying a glass of wine on the Campo dei Fiori.
On Saturday, we watched the “One World: Together at Home” concert. The virtual concert is organized by lady Gaga and is touted as the largest gathering of major artists since Live Aid in 1985. The event raised 127 million dollars and is supporting front line healthcare workers and the World Health Organization.
Wine Merchant Boutelegier from Bruges in Belgium launched the campaign ‘Message in a Bottle’. Olivier started his wine business 20 years ago and over the years he built a loyal clientele, a balanced mix of private and professional clients. His private clients continue to enjoy a good glass of wine at home but his professional clients such as restaurants are hit awfully hard by the lockdown. In order to support his best clients and show them that he cares, he decided to offer them a bottle of wine to enjoy, ‘a message in a bottle’.
The ”Teddy Bear Hunts” show that small acts can have a big impact. All over the world you see teddy bears appearing in windows, on porches, in trees and on parked cars. It is a fun and exciting activity for kids to spot as many bears as they can while they are going for a walk. For millions of children teddy bear hunts are a welcome relief from the isolation.
Some other companies are moving their focus on design and beauty to producing essential equipment for patients and medical professionals. Lamborghini is producing surgical masks and face shields. Each night, as a sign of solidarity with the Italian people, the firm lights its headquarters with the Italian flag's colors.
Van de Velde, a Belgian luxury lingerie company, is joining forces with several partners in producing surgical masks for local companies. Microtherm is cutting the sterile fabric, the seamstresses from Van de Velde are sewing the masks and their transportation partner Jetcar is delivering the masks to the hospitals.
It is fantastic to see so many successful and heartwarming initiatives.