Mary @ Christmas Seal Foundation home for kids

Crown Princess Mary visited the Christmas Seal Foundation home at Skælskør, last Wednesday (8 October 2008). Mary is the patron of the Christmas Seal Foundation which raises money to help children through the sale of the annual Christmas Seal. The foundation owns four Christmas Seal Homes where children from 6 to 14 years old can stay for a program of 10 weeks. Every year, the foundation helps 700 children to improve their lives. Current programmes are helping obese children to lose weight and learn healthy habits with ongoing support so the emphasis is on activity during the visit. Mary leads by example! (BB scroll down for gallery from last time)



Photos © Hanne Juul/Billed Bladet, Bjørn Armbjørn & Leif Nyholm/Skælskør Avis

Billed Bladet 'Kronprinsesse Mary i karrusellen' - Crown Princess Mary on the roundabout
08 October 2008 | Jan Bergman
Mary let herself to be inspired by the beautiful autumn weather and turned her inner child loose on a roundabout. The home which is helping overweight children lose weight in Skælskør had a royal visit on Wednesday...Crown Princess Mary gave the children at the Home helping overweight children lose weight an experience to remember when she happily jumped up on the playground's roundabout and with several of the children she whirred round fast and often...In honour of the occasion Crown Princess Mary's bodyguards were substituted by two children, Jamie and Iben, who accompanied Mary through the whole visit at the home. And for their effort Crown Princess Mary gave them a big hug as the visit concluded. As patron Crown Princess Mary joins in the activities, such as jumping on the trampoline at the Ølsted Home in 2006 and now again...

DR.dk gallery
Sjællandske.dk gallery
Søren Steffen gallery
Julie Malmgren gallery

Her&Νu clip
TV2øst clip (02:04)

Mary @ the Christmas Seal 2007

Today Crown Princess Mary has attended the presentation of the Christmas Seal for 2007 at the Restaurant Grøften in Tivoli. The Christmas Seal is a specially designed stamp launched each year and sold throughout Denmark as an extra 'seal' in addition to Christmas stamps. The Christmas Seal has a more than one hundred year history of sale of stamps (seals), pins, cards and also historical re-issues with a focus on children at Christmas time. Crown Princess Mary is the patron for the Christmas Seal Foundation which manages and uses the money raised to fund the four Christmas Seal houses. Children from 6 to 14 who have various kinds of problems have an extended stay for ten weeks free of charge. Around 700 children a year go to the homes in Skælskør, Ølsted near Frederiksværk, Hobro and Kollund, all located in beautiful surroundings, where good habits in nutrition, excercise and learning new skills are emphasised. Thomas Schrøder is this year's Christmas Seal artist.

Also, this event marked the first public appearance of Mary's new lady-in-waiting, Tanja Doky. Mary has known Tanja since first arriving in Denmark (she atteended Mary's 30th birthday party at Amalienborg) and she told B.T. she is happy about having the new job and that they have known each other for a long time. Tanja is married to one of Crown Prince Frederik's good friends, the jazz bass player Chris Minh Doky. Like Mary, Tanja is a mother of two, her children are Frida Anh, 4 , and Milo Tai, 3 years. Caroline Heering is continuing as a lady-in-waiting, but is also Mary's private secretary at the same time.



From the Christmas Seal Foundation:



Christmas Seal 2007
The Christmas Seal
order Christmas cards online
Ann Mette Heindorf's site '100 years of Danish Christmas Seals 1904-2003'
B.T. 'Mary sender flere hundrede julekort'
Added: See Madeleine Glindorf's gallery

Mary launches the Christmas Seal 2006

Today Crown Princess Mary has attended the presentation of the new Christmas Seal 2006. Mary is the patron of the
The Christmas Seal Foundation (and in English) was founded in 1904 and releases a seal, or stamp, each year, which Danes buy to raise money to help children. The foundation owns and operates four Christmas Seal Homes where every year, the foundation helps 700 children to develop a better and happier life through health and other initiatives. The presentation took place in Restaurant Grøften at Tivoli, Copenhagen.



DR.dk video clip (01:46)
Just click on the link to revisit Crown Princess Mary's visit to the Christmas Seal home in Kildemose, Ølsted last May.

Frederik and Mary present the Crown Prince Couple's Culture Prize

Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary have awarded the Crown Prince Couple's Culture Prize last night at the new opera house, Operaen, in Copenhagen. It is the venue for a concert to be broadcast on DR TV. The award of the prize is marked by a concert, and this year P.J. Harvey will be performing. P.J. Harvey described the Crown Prince Couple Awards as prestigious, although it is only in its second year. Last year Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds performed (interesting since Nick Cave used to have a big thing for Polly!). The Kulturepris honours artistic and humanitarian achievements in Denmark and is a wedding present to Frederik and Mary by Bikubenfonden.dk.

Politiken reports the winner of the artistic achievement prize is Olafur Eliasson who was awarded 500.000 Danish kroner. His website is one you have to mouse around to see the info and images. Eliasson was educated at the Royal Academy of Art in Copenhagen and works in multiple media but is probably best known as an installation artist who has exhibited internationally and now lives in Berlin.

The humanitarian achievement award was made to Julemærkefonden (The Christmas Seal Foundation) which helps Danish children in crisis through its four retreat homes. It was accepted on behalf of Julemærkefonden by its director Joan Vestergaard. Crown Princess Mary is patron of the organisation. It was awarded 250.000 Danish kroner.

Last year Crown Princess Mary was unable to attend the prize giving because she was ordered by her doctors to rest some weeks before giving birth. So, Mary missed out last year but this year will see Danish rock poet Peter Sommer perform and of course, P.J. Harvey, which is a great coup because she is only doing three concerts this year. Although the Crown Prince Couple decide who the recipients of the two prizes are, they have help from a group which advises them.



Kronprinsparrets Kulturpris
Bikubenfonden.dk (runs the prize)
The Royal Opera Stages
Operaen - the new opera house (the venue)



This last group of photos by Jens Panduro of POLFOTO

Crown Prince Frederik's speech (in Danish)
Crown Princess Mary's speech (in Danish)

TV Avisen clip (0:28)

From The Copenhagen Post:
Eliasson gets royal award

25.09.2006

The 2nd annual Royal Couple's Cultural Award Ceremony was presided over by the crown prince and princess themselves

Artist and sculptor Olafur Eliasson took home DKK 500,000 and the accompanying sculpture Sunday evening in Copenhagen at the second annual Royal Couple's Cultural Awards ceremony, the prize handed over by the award's namesakes, Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary.
Eliasson won based on his 'unique ability to forever search deeper and deeper into the human senses' inexhaustible universe,' said the Crown Prince.
Eliasson is known for his work with ambiences of light and shadow, and he was the artist behind the three large chandeliers which hang in the foyer of the Opera House, where the ceremony took place. The award itself, a glass sculpture, was also created by Eliasson with glazier Per Sten Hebsgaard.
The secondary award of DKK 250,000 to the most outstanding charity was given to the Danish Christmas Seal Foundation, proprietors of the Christmas Seal Houses for troubled children.
'With this donation we lend a hand to the Christmas Seal Houses, that the results of their efforts last a long time and, more importantly, leave a positive mark on children for the rest of their lives,' said Crown Princess Mary.
The Royal Couple's Cultural Award is the Beehive Foundation's wedding gift to the royal couple. The winners are chosen by the couple themselves, after consultation with a forum consisting of notables in the cultural circle.~