Sjors Hoogendoorn from Riel is only 3.5 years old, but very targeted. After walking last year with the Verbeeten Challenge, for people with the cancer balls, as he says it himself, he wanted to do something more this year. He drives his go -kart through the village and picks up a deposit for cancer research.
In a corner of the garden near his house on the Dorpsstraat in Riel, dozens of bags are filled with deposit bottles. The result of different long rounds on his go -kart through the village. The proud Sjors counts out loud how much there are. “People with cancer balls are pathetic,” says Sjors when he is finished counting. “Then they have to go to the hospital …” he continues. “Aunt Leen and Grandpa were also in the hospital.”
Deposit bottles and bikjes
Last year, Sjors and his mother Katrien walked along with the Verbeeten Challenge, a sporting event in the fight against cancer. All proceeds go into research for better care for people with cancer and their loved ones. “Sjors will participate in the Challenge again on 6 April, but he also came up with a plan to pick up deposit bottles and cans in the neighborhood with his go -kart,” says mother Katrien Hoogendoorn.
“Because my aunt has Marleen breast cancer, we thought we should do something extra this year. My father had colon cancer, but luckily he is better again,” says Katrien.
Sjors is enormously fanatic with picking up the bottles. When he rings about local residents, he already has his chat ready: “Do you have empty bottles for people with the cancer balls?” Some people know that Sjors comes by and have saved extra bottles for charity. “We think it is very cool, because he is only so small,” say two girls who put a full bag of bottles in the trailer behind Sjors’ go -kart. “We still had all the bottles of my birthday party.”
Mother Katrien is surprised by the enthusiasm of everyone to participate. “First I sent an app to friends and acquaintances, but soon people we didn’t know at all. They wanted to donate their deposit bottles to charity. The news went through the village like a running fire,” says Katrien. “In the meantime, Sjors always asks if we are going to pick up bottles again. And then I don’t say no, because the more the better of course!”
The tenth edition of the Verbeeten Challenge will take place on Sunday 6 April, this year on the site of Athletics Association Attila in Tilburg. Until a day before the challenge, Katrien and Sjors are still on the road to pick up deposit bottles. “We don’t have a specific target amount, but I never expected as many bottles as we have now!”
