At the New Year’s reception in the city of Unterschleißheim on Friday evening, Mayor Christoph Böck (SPD) called for optimism despite the crises and wars. Optimism means assuming the best, said Böck, according to the speech transcript. “Coupled with a confident view of the future. And the willingness to act accordingly.” For example, it could only be hoped “with a good dash of optimism” that after three years of the pandemic we would see each other again for the New Year’s reception.
Around 500 guests accepted the invitation to the community center, where for the first time there was no buffet, but soups prepared by Daniel Eiglmeier, the new innkeeper at Rathausplatz, and his team. There was a reason why the catering was smaller: the city adds the same amount that visitors to the reception were supposed to donate to help local people who are in difficult life situations.
In his speech, Böck described Unterschleißheim as the “city of optimists” who acted with a lot of heart in difficult situations. Fabric masks were sewn for neighbors and refugees from Ukraine were taken into private apartments. According to Böck, more than 500 people from the war-torn country now live in Unterschleißheim, which means that the city has passed the threshold of 30,000 inhabitants. The mayor thanked schools, parents’ councils and social institutions for their contribution to the integration of the newcomers. Appropriately, the New Year’s reception was accompanied by music from a Ukrainian folklore choir conducted by Daria Khramtsova.
According to Böck, optimism was also necessary for many urban projects in the past three years of the crisis. “Some things took longer than expected, but thanks to the commitment of the city council and administration, a lot was achieved and progressed.” The mayor named the new building for the BRK and the Caritas day-care center as examples.
On behalf of many committed citizens, Böck thanked the citizen and honorary medal winners Katharina Bednarek and Caro Schwarz. He also honored four personalities with the silver or gold citizen medal: Barbara Rannabauer from the neighborhood help, Bernd Riech from the Protestant parish, Ludger Heck from the Catholic parish of St. and Ulrich Hufnagl, who has been organizing the Christmas market in front of St. Korbinian for 40 years.