During the traditional New Year’s reception of the village, Roelof Kleve received the very first honorary plume from Nieuw-Weerdinge. The GP stopped his own village practice last year.
Roelof Kleve (75) can call himself the first Nieuw-Weerdinger to receive an honorary feather. On Wednesday evening, he was thanked by fellow villagers for his contribution to the peat colonial village, where he was a general practitioner and an important player in daily life for 32 years.
During none of those years, his involvement ended at the doctor’s office door. He was the spiritual father of the unique Kleve Project.
Kleve Project
When he had been in practice for 25 years at the beginning of this century, patients raised money for a nice gift. But Kleve didn’t want a weekend away or a new bicycle, because ‘the milkman didn’t get that after so many years of loyal service’. He suggested using the money raised to visit the former Buchenwald concentration camp. And not, as he did before, only with his wife, but with the groups 8 of the primary schools of Nieuw-Weerdinge.
Despite some sputtering psychologists, who thought the children were too young for such a school trip, Kleve pushed through with the idea. It did not stop at that one impressive visit. With the establishment of the Kleve Project, more and more activities were organized to allow village children to experience how to interact with each other in a respectful manner, regardless of religion, origin, gender, political opinion or sexual orientation.
Last year, children from primary schools De Bentetop and ‘t Koppel met peers who had fled from war zones such as Syria, Iraq and Ukraine to eat and play together.
Solicited and unsolicited advice
According to village chairman Wim Katoen, Nieuw-Weerdinge’s first kudos will end up with the right man. “Roelof is always very involved in the well-being of our village. He always gives us solicited and unsolicited advice.”
Kleve himself hastened to dedicate the boulder with colorful feathers to all active villagers. “Many things that fail elsewhere get off the ground here. While people often come home tired and have all kinds of worries, they still decide to commit themselves to our village. I don’t immediately lose sleep over this prize, but the fact that fellow villagers award me this feels like an appreciation. Then I didn’t do it all for Jan with the short surname,” Kleve responds.
Village in the spotlight
In 2020, the last regular compliment was awarded to De Stavo for organizing activities for the elderly in the village. For the past two years, the annual appreciation prize has remained on hold due to corona. Katoen announced on Wednesday that the prize for Kleve will certainly not be the last honorary appreciation in the village.
2023 was a special year for Nieuw-Weerdinge. The village existed for 150 years and hosted the great Drenthe rural festival, the Zuidenveld. Yet the village name was mainly in the news because of persistent nuisance from a group of asylum seekers from Ter Apel. At the Local Interest reception, Mayor Eric van Oosterhout praised the solidarity in the village despite thunder and personal setbacks. “That organized solidarity is more than just normal naivety.”