"Better than winning the lottery": Bayer 04 HILFT day at Leverkusen children’s day-care centre

A total of more than 80 helpers made their way to the day-care centre on Werner-Heisenberg-Straße in the Leverkusen district of Lützenkirchen early on Wednesday morning. The majority of the helping hands came from the Bayer 04 workforce, enthusiastically supported by employees of sponsors' club partner Coca-Cola. They were joined by another 20 helpers from the Lebenshilfe-Werkstätten workshops in Leverkusen, who have been working closely alongside the Werksclub on projects and in everyday life for many years and always get involved on Bayer 04 HILFT Day. The Werkself players and the coaching staff also joined them after their morning training session to lend a hand.

Day-care centre manager: "Biggest change since the centre was OPENED"

"We proactively contacted the club via our parents’ council some time ago to apply for the Bayer 04 HILFT Day,’ reports Gaby Bernards, who helped set up the centre more than 25 years ago, as she looks on with great pleasure at the changes to the day-care centre's outdoor area: "The club's approval was better for us than winning the lottery. The people here are great, the atmosphere is fantastic. It's definitely the biggest change by far since the centre was opened."

It was important both to the people responsible for the day-care centre as well as the helpers to ensure the outdoor area retained its natural character. The centre for the 90 children aged between two and six years backs onto a nature reserve, and the building itself has also been left to look as natural as possible.

While the day-care centre children enjoyed an eventful day at the LIGA ‘20 Soccerhalle and the BayArena, numerous projects were implemented in the outdoor area of the facility. In addition to various renovation and landscaping works on beds and hedges, a balancing trail and a water playground were created. Another new highlight is the football pitch with wooden goals. A small neighbouring plot of land has even been completely redeveloped to create a sensory trail for the children.

Hradecky: "Appreciate what's being done here"

After the morning training session, the Werkself players and the coaching staff arrived at the centre around midday and also got stuck in. Head coach Xabi Alonso, Jonas Hofmann, Victor Boniface and Co. split up into different areas. Matej Kovar, Martin Terrier and Adam Hlozek, for example, worked on the balancing trail, while the majority of the Werkself players were busy on the sensory trail. Of course, they also took time out for selfies with the helpers, for example from the Lebenshilfe-Werkstätten workshops, and to sign autographs on caps and T-shirts. 

Goalkeeper Lukas Hradecky stressed afterwards: "It's hard work, but it's a cool and absolutely helpful project! You really have to appreciate what's being done here. And we as a team also wanted to make our contribution."

As the players and coaches also successfully completed their projects, the children returned from the BayArena and were amazed at the significant changes in the outdoor area - the majority of them sporting Werkself jerseys or tops and all of them with big, beaming smiles on their faces...

As in previous years, our long-standing partner Coca-Cola not only provided funds for the Bayer 04 HILFT Day, but also released ten motivated employees from work for the assignment.

Day-care centre, wildlife park and NaturGut

In 2015, the year the campaign was founded, and again in 2016 the Bayer 04 HILFT Day was held at day-care centres in Leverkusen. In the summer of 2017, the Opladen driving practice area was spruced up, and in 2018, the players and staff took on the Reuschenberg Wildlife Park. In 2019, it was the turn of the Neuland Park. After a two-year break due to the COVID pandemic, a new fitness parcours was set up at the Burgloch allotment association in 2022, and last year work was carried out at NaturGut Ophoven.