You can’t start early enough with Carnival. That is why brand new parents in the Jeroen Bosch Hospital do not receive any blue or pink mice during the feast of the festivities. They are served rusk with Oeteldonk mice in the proud colors of the city: red, white and yellow. “Super fun”, laughs Helena Satter, who has just given birth to her daughter Evi.
32-year-old mother Helena proudly shows her newborn baby. She was born on the very special date: 22-02-2022 at, yes, two o’clock in the morning. And shortly after birth, the brand new family received the very special mice. “It’s going to be a real carnival celebration, especially if she looks like her father,” laughs her mother.
“It’s great that those mice are here now. Very original,” says the radiant Helena. Remarkably enough, she lives just on the other side of the major rivers, namely in Herwijnen in Gelderland. Yet there is sufficient reason to call the child a native of Bosch. “She was born here in the hospital. I really feel at home here and I went to school here in Den Bosch. And her father is really a carnival celebration.”
Oeteldonk scarf
And the child is overloaded with much more Bossche stuff. Photogenic as she is, she poses with a red, white and yellow Oeteldonk scarf, knitted by hospital staff. The carnival emblem ‘Bossche Baby’ immediately makes it clear for which city its carnival heart beats. Mother herself wears an emblem with the text: ‘from Dearest Mother’†
The idea for the carnival mice came from a nurse from the Bossche Hospital: Madeline van den Berg. A mother was due at carnival, but would still give birth earlier. The woman then jokingly said to the nurse: “Ah, no Oeteldonk mice for me yet.” It was only later that the midwife’s penny dropped and a new idea was born.
Durske or Jungske
Nurse Madeline called sweet-toothed entrepreneur Olaf Ouwerkerk. And he wanted to arrange that. “I didn’t hesitate for a second. It’s a really nice idea,” he laughs. The litter is also marketed under the name Oeteldonkse Stadsgenootjes. On the box are texts such as: ‘Welcome skon durske/jungske in Oeteldonk.’
They are not the first mice that radiate the pride of a region or city. Ouewerkerk has been making Brabant mice since last year. And Breda and Eindhoven, for example, already have their own mice.