Una lettera di ringraziamento alla Protezione Civile comunale e alla Misericordia di Livorno, per la vicenda dei 68 scout tedeschi assistiti nella notte di sabato 22 agosto, è arrivata al Sindaco da una dei capigruppo, Alessandra Mejer, che desidera far sapere ai livornesi “quanto sia stato straordinario il loro aiuto”.
Il messaggio è pieno di gratitudine per gli operatori comunali e per i volontari che si sono prodigati per fornire in tempi rapidissimi cibo e giacigli ai giovanissimi ragazzi e ragazze che erano rimasti senza pullman per ritornare a casa, a causa di un disguido sulle prenotazioni.
Ecco il testo (in inglese, e sotto la traduzione). Da notare che la caposcout, citando i volontari, parla solo di Misericordia di Livorno (il cui ruolo è stato peraltro fondamentale), mentre oltre ad essa hanno collaborato con la Protezione Civile anche Misericordia di Antignano, Società Volontaria di Soccorso e CISOM :
Dear Mr.Salvetti,
My name is Alessandra Meier, I’m 22 I am writing to you as one of the team leaders from the German scouts that were left stranded in Livorno on Saturday night, August 22nd.
I am sure the Misericordia and Protezione Vile told you about what happened, but I wanted to let you know how incredible their help was.
So here are the facts and the story as it happened :
We are a group of scouts from Stuttgart, Germany, called the BDP (Bund Deutscher Pfadfinder). We were 4 groups in total, and two weeks earlier we travelled from Germany to Livorno. 3 groups went to Korsika by ferry to hike and go camping there. One group went to Sardinia with the ferry.
On Saturday, the three groups from Korsika went on the ferry to Livorno as planned. But when we arrived, we needed to wait for the other group from Sardinia to arrive, and the bus that should have taken all 68 people of us back to Germany, should have arrived at 11 pm. But the bus never came ! There was a misunderstanding and the bus was booked for Sunday, not for Saturday.
And now here is the Problem : We were 9 team leaders and 59 children aged 10-18, but most were 12-17. And we didn’t know when or if a bus would come.
I went to a pizza shop near the ferry Terrain and asked the lady from the shop for help. She made lots of calls and called the city, and then called the Misericordia. By then it was 11 pm.
In approximately an hour, the Misericordia and Protezione civile managed to set up 68 beds and sent 4 big vans and a few cars to pick all of up at the pizza shop and took all of us to the Misericordia. There, we received food and water and we had a warm place to stay.
What all of these volunteers from the Misericordia and Protezione civile did that night, is something the BDP and I will always be thankful for. Their immediate response and quick help made this terrible night so so so much better. Elisa, a mid-20 year old volunteer from the Misericordia spoke good English and helped tremendously to translate everything to the other 15+ people working that night.
Every one of us received a bag with food and water and I was just so thankful for everything they did !! I told them thanks a million times, but what they did was heroic. They were heroes that night.
I was the one team leader who spoke with the workers and volunteers and organized everything, and even though I was so tired and overwhelmed it helped so much that the Misericordia and Protezione civile helped us so quickly.
Please acknowledge their tremendous help, without this we would have had a really really big problem!
The next morning, we started waking the kids up at 6 am and the bus came at 9 am at the piazza behind the Misericordia.
We are so very grateful for their help !!!
The bus journey continued for the group and they arrived at midnight on Sunday, the 23 rd August in Stuttgart.
If you have more questions about the heroic acts of the Misericordia and the Protezione civile and the story, please let me know.
Greetings,
Alessandra Meier from the BDP Bempflingen, Baden-Württemberg in Germany
Alessandra Meier
Educator from Germany
Care Professional with Apex Social
Foto:pixabay
