He will board at the end of August, and the entry will take place on November 14. “That is quite a short time, even in our field. We are used to quite a bit, but I would have preferred the preparation to be a little longer. During that period I worked on this for about 1,000 to 1,200 hours.”
At that time he had a six-year-old son. “I got away with saying that daddy had to work for Sinterklaas. Of course he still believed in it.”
Meijerink also puts a lot of time into it. “You can forget about a 36-hour working week. Maybe double that. And that from April to December.” An evaluation immediately follows. “I think in January I got around to my own work again.”
All three look back on it with great pleasure. “The arrival was unforgettable, but all the work beforehand was also great,” says Biemolt.
“You only do this work if you really enjoy it. I don’t want to say that I enjoyed every minute of it. There were also quite complicated things involved,” says Spijkerman. “This is the largest children’s party in the Netherlands. I look back on a great success, and it is very special to have participated in it,” says Meijerink.
It was at the time of the Zwarte Piet discussion, so there was also a less atmosphere around the arrival. To combat this, Gino Spijkerman founded a special Saint Society with entertainer Vincent van Leth and then theater director Wybrich Kaastra.
“We made up fake news and published it. All to create some positivism. I remember that Van Leth started replacing street signs in Meppel at night. Then the Noteboomstraat became the Pepernotenboomstraat and the Nicolaes Maesstraat became the Sint Nicolaasstraat.”
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