Neubrandenburg (dpa/mv) - The Neubrandenburg Dreikönigsverein can continue to rely on the support of many people for its projects. As club chairman Rainer Prachtl announced on Friday, 70,000 euros in donations were collected on the occasion of Epiphany. The money is primarily used to support the care of terminally ill people in hospice work, youth trips to Israel and other social initiatives. The association, headed by former state parliament president Prachtl, is one of the most active social initiatives in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania.

The association traditionally raises the donations with a benefit day on January 6, the evening meeting of which is considered the first social highlight in the state. Several hundred representatives of public life from business, politics and administration come together to listen to a keynote speaker who speaks about current social problems. This meeting had to be canceled in 2021 and 2022 due to corona. The ex-editor-in-chief of ZDF, Peter Frey, was supposed to give the speech on Friday.

"I am aware that many citizens and companies have to economize on their money in view of the problems of the past few years," said Prachtl. It is all the more impressive that the association hardly had to accept any losses in donations. Every sum is important for hospice work, whether it is five euros from a pensioner or significantly more money from a company.

Many prominent speakers have come to the Epiphany meetings in the past, including Cardinal Reinhard Marx, Mikhail Gorbachev, Angela Merkel, Roman Herzog, Wolfgang Schäuble, Wolfgang Thierse and Joachim Gauck before he became Federal President.