A longstanding partnership

The walls and roof have been in place for some time. Now, the interior work has also begun in the garden hut of the Johannesberg School in Mosbach. Electrical and lighting systems were installed during the volunteer campaign for trainees. An outdoor kitchen is expected to follow soon, and it will then be possible to cook in the school’s garden. The students of the Johannesberg School are looking forward to it.

The stainless steel shines in the sun, and the MOSCA logo is emblazoned on the swivel arm. The grill is the centerpiece and eye-catcher of the new barbecue area at the Johannesberg School, which was set up with the energetic help of MOSCA GmbH employees. The enormous swinging barbecue was built by five MOSCA trainees under the guidance of their trainer Franz Hamm within just two weeks. This was followed by three days of work at the special education and counseling center of the Johannes-Diakonie Mosbach, where Johannesberg students not only set up the grill and benches, but also created a wooden terrace. School management, teachers, students and MOSCA employees were able to inaugurate the barbecue area in perfect weather – and enjoy barbecue food and drinks on the new terrace. “It has turned out magnificently”, said principal Mario Kiefer about what is now the third project that MOSCA trainees have helped to implement at the Johannesberg School. Kiefer joined Johannes-Diakonie volunteer coordinator Tanja Bauer and teacher Christina Pfeiffer in thanking CEO Simone Mosca, training manager Oliver Krieger and all the other employees involved for their dedicated efforts.

The new barbecue area will now become a place where people can meet, also in an inclusive way. “It has already achieved this through the joint work of students and MOSCA trainees”, enthused Pfeiffer, who accompanied the project with students from the vocational school level. In the future, the barbecue area will be used for soccer tournaments and other events. It will also be used to teach practical life skills, such as how to prepare food. Further design work on the site will also involve the students. For example, a wooden shelf is planned. There are also plans for a wheelchair access road so that students with severe disabilities can easily reach the barbecue area. So there is still a lot to do for Pfeiffer and her students. But thanks to MOSCA, they can now enjoy their breaks at a new barbecue area.

Christmas time is presents time. In keeping with the festive season, representatives of MOSCA presented the workshops of the Johannes-Diakonie in Mosbach with a gift that can also be used to tie up very large packages. The MO-M- 8 strapping machine is most welcome in the workshops, as their manager Sven Schüssler explained during the handover: “The new machine gives us new possibilities for packing and shipping goods.” With the modern packaging technology, the workshops can now meet the high demands of their customers from industry and commerce even more effectively and open up new activities for the employees.

For Michael Zimmermann,  Head of Sales Systems D-A-CH at MOSCA, and Bernhard Eppel, Technical Service at MOSCA, it is important not just to provide technical support for the workshops, but also to support the people who work here: “As a socially and regionally committed company, we are delighted to be able to help. The strapping machine replaces an outdated model. It is versatile to use and easy to operate, making it ideal for the requirements of workshop operations”, Zimmermann explained.

After two of our trainees at the Johannesberg School did a great job in designing the “Creative Workshop”, the class H3 of the Johannesberg School visited us together with their two teachers and the volunteer coordinator Tanja Bauer.

Simone Steinhäuser, head of commercial training at MOSCA, showed the visitors topics related to MOSCA in a hands-on presentation. The students were particularly impressed by the live demonstration of a strapping machine and were even more pleased to be able to operate the machine themselves. During the tour of the production halls, the students were likewise fascinated by the variety of machines that are manufactured at the Waldbrunn site.

The project “Designing a Creative Workshop” had already been in the planning stages at the Johannesberg School for some time and was put into action with the support of two trainees as well as Oliver Krieger, Head of Technical Training, and Franz Hamm, Mechanics Instructor.

Over the course of a two-day project, they transformed the old workrooms into a “creative workshop”: Old workbenches were sanded down and repainted, the work area in the center of the room was given a specially made strip with magnetic holders for tools, machines were fitted into the new partitioned-off work corner, and a mobile, wheelchair-accessible workstation was created.  There is now also space for work materials on a storage shelf that was set up in the next room.

But it wasn’t just the students at the Johannesberg School who benefited from their new creative workshop; it was also a formative experience for the two trainees to implement the project in collaboration with the students. Julian Schork was impressed: “It’s actually quite simple and straightforward to work cooperatively with less able students in a team and automatically take on responsibility in the process.”

Staying focused on their tasks during the school day is not always easy for some students at Johannesberg School. Study booths and desks divided by wooden panels and equipped with computers create a quiet environment in which students can concentrate more easily. During a two-day volunteer effort, three such cubicles were upgraded in collaboration with MOSCA. The project was made possible by donations from MOSCA GmbH and the “Ladies’ Circle 1 Mosbach” service club. However, the financial commitment of MOSCA and the “Ladies’ Circle” made much more possible. Trainer Franz Hamm, head of commercial training Simone Steinhäuser, and trainee industrial mechanics Christian Schick and Lukas Proksch painted the room in a friendly yellow. The trainees also donated a basketball hoop complete with ball – a welcome activity for break times at the school. But the students, aged 14 to 16, also got involved, renovating tables, chairs and a shelf. A comfortable corner sofa completes the space that students and teachers can now use for work.

During the donation presentation in the classrooms, Johannesberg School officials thanked the two supporters: “We are all really thrilled that you made the new room layout possible,” Pfeiffer said. “Our students are really happy to be able to work in such great conditions.”