Maxime Baked Oliebollen for charity Het Vergeten Kind: "I knew right away that I wanted to do this for them"

At Avit, we want to make a positive impact on the world in which we live, work, and move. We do this, among other things, by making responsible choices ourselves, but also by enabling our colleagues to develop initiatives that are close to them and to the heart of the organization. With our Positive Social Impact (PSI) program, colleagues can donate time and money to initiatives, actions, and charities that contribute to a better society.

Maxime de Vaal, Inside Sales Representative at Avit, proudly set up a PSI initiative and raised money for Het Vergeten Kind.

She did this last December by baking and selling oliebollen (Dutch doughnuts) herself. In conversation with us, Maxime is happy to share what Het Vergeten Kind means to her and what she did with her PSI initiative:

Maxime, can you tell us what Het Vergeten Kind means to you?

“Het Vergeten Kind stands up for children who are less fortunate at home. These are children who, for whatever reason, have been placed out of home and live in nursing homes or guesthouses. I myself, though not nearly as bad as these children, also felt a bit like a forgotten child in the past and I would have liked there to be something like this for me.

That's why I've been a volunteer at Heppie, part of Het Vergeten Kind, for a long time.

A few years ago I thought: what can I do? How can I contribute to society? When Het Vergeten Kind came my way, it was a perfect fit. At Heppie, we organize weekends and vacations for the children so that they can really be children again."

How did you help Het Vergeten Kind?

“I got the idea to raise money by making and selling oliebollen and hot chocolate myself. Because I had never baked oliebollen before, I also asked for help from my colleagues and many people wanted to help. In the end, we set up this action with a team of about twelve colleagues. Some helped with setting up, some with baking, etc. In the end, there were also colleagues who had not registered to help.

We also flyered in advance, so that in addition to family and friends, many people from the neighborhood and local businesses came by. In the end, there was even an alderman from the municipality of Vijfheerenlanden present - and he immediately took sixty oliebollen with him for the council meeting later that evening."

How do you look back on the initiative?

“When I heard that these kinds of initiatives are possible at Avit, I knew right away that I wanted to use this for Het Vergeten Kind. And it was a real success! More than six buckets of oliebollen batter and liters of hot chocolate went over the counter. The result was a wonderful donation of almost 825 euros, from the sales and the online collection box for people who couldn't be there.”*

Avit is incredibly proud of colleagues like Maxime who are committed to making a positive social impact and achieving such successes.

*The online collection box remains open. Do you also want to donate? Then check out: https://hetvergetenkind.digicollect.nl/maxime-de-vaal