pricelessland

We laugh a lot, sometimes we fight and sometimes we feel stressed. Emotional moments that get under your skin are rather rare with us in the Unbezahlbarland team. However, one topic made our hearts beat faster with happiness, joy and emotion this year.  

That was pure magic

When we held the hidden object picture book in our hands for the first time and leafed through the so lovingly and detailed hidden object scenes, we were very moved and fascinated. What illustrator Peter Ernst created from our extensive Excel tables, link collections and briefings was pure magic for us. We couldn't get enough of each other and kept discovering small hidden picture elements. When Holger Freymann from the Office for District Development wrote the term hidden book in our list of ideas for possible measures of the UBL campaign two years ago, I was skeptical. To be honest, I first had to google what a hidden object book actually is. My children are already grown and so I have little to do with children's books. But mom and graphic artist Ariane Archner was hooked. And that's how we went about it. The images from various illustrators were viewed, offers obtained and ultimately the best one was selected for our project. We spent hours dividing the district into small scenes and dividing them into nine pages. The final product really blew us away.  

Children's eyes look at the priceless land

We have offered all day care centers in the district to make the hidden object books available to them free of charge. 100 day-care centers accepted the offer. Eleven of you took part in the painting competition we initiated. The children should be inspired by the pictures in the book and paint their favorite place in their home country or a favorite motif from the book for us. When we looked at the many submitted pictures, collages and handicrafts, we were again very moved. Even the four-year-olds drew which places they particularly like. The older the children, the more complex and vivid the works became. The pictures impressively show how well the small priceless countries already know their homeland. Since pictures say more than a thousand words, it is best to take a look at the works of art for yourself.

Radiant winners

There weren't really any real winners. All day-care centers that took part in the hidden object book painting campaign earned a prize. All of them have dealt intensively with our homeland and put a lot of effort into the design of their pictures. However, we had offered five main prizes. And so we had to choose five day-care centers. Luckily, the editors of the newspaper Zeit(ung) for children supported us. Three facilities can now look forward to prize money of 300 euros each and two daycare centers of 200 euros each. We are currently bringing the symbolic checks personally to the children.  

We started with the “Naseweis” day-care center in the Lauba district of Lawalde. The money got here just in time. The young artists celebrated their kindergarten farewell before they were finally allowed to become school children. The 300 euros were put to optimal use on an excursion for the prospective school beginners with an overnight stay. The joy is great, with the children and with us. After all, we wanted to use Hidden Picture Book to bring the priceless country closer to the children in a playful way and motivate them to deal with their own homeland. The idea worked. That makes us happy.  

On behalf of the enthusiastic UBL team,
your Ingo

PS You can find the hidden object picture book here in the Unbezahlbarland shop