Wirthwein Running Challenge

Wirthwein-Group employees run over 20,000 kilometers together for a good cause. Donations to WWF, Welthungerhilfe (world hunger relief) and World Vision.

True to the motto "Join in and do something good!", employees of the Wirthwein Group around the world collected kilometers together for the charitable cause for one month with the goal of fictitiously visiting every Wirthwein plant and thus circling the globe. In the run-up to the event, the board of directors of Wirthwein AG advertised a charity donation of 0.30 Euros for every kilometer run.

Although the ambitious goal of 32,028 kilometers was not reached, the result of 20,128 kilometers is impressive, especially since the international running team raised a total of 6,100 Euros, which was "rounded up" to 7,500 Euros by the board of directors.

Donations to internationally active organizations

In the context of the internationality of the Group and the joint activities of employees around the world, Wirthwein selected three globally active aid organizations as donation recipients.

With 2,500 Euros, Wirthwein supports a project of WWF Germany, in which so-called ghost nets which were lost during fishing or intentionally disposed of in the sea are fetched from the North Sea and recycled. According to recent studies, ghost nets account for between 30 and 50 percent of the plastic found in our oceans. They pose a threat to many marine creatures which can become entangled in them or ingest them as food and, as a result, die.
"WWF is testing methods for the environmentally sound collection of ghost nets and is looking for ways to recycle old net material and return it to the material cycle. To this end, WWF cooperates with fishermen and diving teams who remove entangled nets from the bottom and haul them in with the help of a salvage anchor and the ship's winch," the organization reports.

Learn more about the problem of ghost nets and WWF's approaches to solving it at.

Another 2,500 Euros will go to Welthungerhilfe for the establishment of "Agricultural Business Centers" in poverty- and hunger-stricken Zimbabwe. "At the Agricultural Business Center, young farmers are trained in innovative agricultural cultivation methods and livestock breeding, they can receive advice on starting a business or obtaining loans, and they meet potential customers, traders and processing companies in order to get integrated in important local networks," explains Welthungerhilfe. In this way, local young people create a foundation for supplying their community.

Learn more about Welthungerhilfe's work in Zimbabwe.

The children's charity World Vision was also given a sum of 2,500 Euros. Among other things, the money will help them set up maternity wards in Sudan. "The country in northeast Africa with access to the Red Sea is not only one of the largest, but also one of the poorest countries in the world. For decades, civil wars, refugee dramas and genocide have dominated the news from Sudan," describes the organization the situation in the country. For example, World Vision provides medical treatment to more than 20,000 children as well as pregnant and breastfeeding women.

Learn more about World Visions projects in Sudan.

Awards for the best runners

The best runners of each plant and the four best runners of the Group were honored for their outstanding performance. In addition to the honor, the top runners received a gift in the form of a fitness wristband or, optionally, a voucher for a respective regional sports store. The following employees covered the longest distances and thus achieved the best values for their plant: