About a dozen or so happy young Danish students had a barrel of fun Thursday scrubbing and washing cars at the Yacht Haven Grand parking lot.
"Over here,” a couple of the bare chested young men wearing bow-ties and bright red bloomers, boomed at drivers coming to the marina, holding signs with arrows directing cars to the south end of the lot.
"We don’t have parking lots by the harbor like this at home,” one said.
Their enthusiasm made it seem like washing cars is irresistible fun as they attacked the cars with suds and laughter.
Klaus Marquart, leader of the group, is no stranger to the islands, or to car-washing. In 2012 another of his youth groups did a car wash at Fort Christian parking lot, accompanied by song.
Marquart is co-owner of Hojskolendk, a private company that runs the traveling school which has been making regular trips from Denmark to the territory since 2010. He says the students take part in seminars from one to three months and work with local groups, learning team building and project management skills.
This year’s beneficiary is the Family Resource Center. FRC Director Vivian St.Juste watched the kids in amazement as they clambered around the vehicles, sending them out bright and shining from their $10 wash – $10 that will help the agency to help the community it serves.
Vernon Araujo, FRC development director, said YHG had been "wonderful.”
"They supplied the water and the and power, gave us this space, a turnaround at the end of the parking lot, and the tent,” he said, indicating a gaily decorated tent where the group offered Danish cookies and cakes.
Maja Barbalo and Emma Falch, pink of cheek and blue of eye, happily dispensed little bags of Pebernodder, or peppernuts in English, where it loses some of its charm. They said they had made 1,000 of the dainty cookies and a big batch of chocolate cake. "We were up all night,” they said with big smiles.
The little bags of cookies went for $1,while the chocolate cake was $2.
Marquart said between the $10 car washes and the cookie sales, they raised more than $1,000 for FRC.
Marquart praised Bolongo Bay Beach Resort, where the group is staying, for allowing the restaurant kitchen to become a Danish bakery after hours Wednesday night.
The students are unfailingly polite and cheerful; it seems to be a sustaining attitude of the group. Asked his secret formula, Marguart said, "The tradition is we are a school without grades, no judgments. We practice self-development.”
The group will travel to St. Croix next week, where they will stay at the Ridge to Reef farm, which practices sustainable farming. And he said for the holidays the group is looking forward to "building a mini-Danish Christmas dinner, for everybody.”
