Congratulations: These inhabitants of The Hague received a ribbon today

Member of the Order of Orange-Nassau

Peter Johan Vlas:
Peter Vlas is already there 30 year member of bridge club Switch and all about 25 years member of the Technical Committee, the board and involved in the Dutch Bridge Association. Good on the IT side, but also socially adept. About ten years ago he started a teaching club to bring members to a higher level of playing. With success, it became three. He is also chairman of the neighborhood organization Kortenbos. And that is also where administrative and social skills come together.

Christiaan (Hendrik) van Houten

Chris van Houten is ninety years old and has been a volunteer for the Haagse Wijk- en Woonzorg, and its legal predecessors, for twenty years. Trained as a visual artist, and for many years head of the creative department at the Kessler Foundation, he used that experience to teach painting classes.

He did in residential care center ‘Om & Bij’, in residential care center Rivierenbuurt, at the Chinese group and at day care center Paulus Potter in nursing home De Schildershoek. Because: “everyone can paint”, including people with disabilities and dementia.

Corrie (Cornelia Wilhelmina) Riedewald-Lantveld

Patient, hardworking, responsible, friendly, approachable and dedicated; that is how Corrie Riedewald is known. A long-time member of the Evangelische Broedergemeente Haaglanden and a long-time volunteer at the church. She visits new members and members of the congregation who are sick or lonely, and has also served as treasurer in the ministry corps. She is also a member of the Women’s Organization Afimo.

Frank van der Peet

Almost everyone who has something to do with outdoor sports or other major events in The Hague knows his name. But he gets the ribbon for the voluntary work, which he does – despite his disability – with panache, pleasure and tirelessly. For example, as chairman of the Kortenbos neighborhood council and responsible for the neighborhood magazine. And for some time now also as a member of the board of the horse market in Voorschoten. Because Van der Peet was born there, in the Voorstraat in Voorschoten, in the street where the annual horse market is held.

Gerrit van der Velde & Nelly (Neeltje Hendrika) van der Velde-van der Plaat

Gerrit and Nelly van der Velde are both volunteered at the church for many years. First in ‘De Morgenster’ and later in the ‘Marcuskerk’. Among other things, they take care of older church members, help with all kinds of activities, look for substitute pastors, keep the household book and finances of the church in order and meet with the church council. Nelly is a Sunday school teacher and works at the ‘Children’s Shop’. Gerrit is also a volunteer at the open-air theater in the Zuiderpark.

Gerrit van Straalen
Benoordenhout has the ContactClub Benoordenhout 50+. Gerrit van Straalen has been a board member there for a long time. Among other things, he guides excursions to exhibitions throughout the country; is editor of the newsletter and treasurer. Not only that. Van Straalen is scriba of the church council of the Duinzichtkerk, involved in numerous committees and activities. He is also active in other areas: he automated the membership file at the association of former Shell employees, was treasurer, member of the participation council and reading father at the Oranje Nassau School.

Henk (Folkert) Ruijl

From a little boy to the man he is today, Henk Ruijl, editor-in-chief at Omroep West, feels strongly connected to football club DUNO. On the board since he was eighteen and now, forty years later, still a board member. He was the man of communication, the spiritual father of the club magazine, which later made way for a website. With this, DUNO was at the forefront of amateur football. Ruijl helped to create ‘Haagse Dynamiek’, the first truly multifunctional club building in the Netherlands, which also houses a blood bank and childcare in addition to DUNO. Ruijl was 25 referee for years. Not even a serious abuse on the field could stop him.

Henry (Jacques Cornelis) Belfor
Henry Belfor is a brother of the Evangelische Broedergemeente Haaglanden. Former board member, treasurer, volunteer and pastor. He secured a loan to buy a new church and is the faithful coordinator of the 200+-Club. Belfor is also active on a national and European level: the Moravian Church is part of the worldwide Brethren Unity, also known as ‘Hernhutters’, the ‘Moravian Church’ or the ‘Unitas Fratrum’.

Bian Hong Liem

“People like you make this world a better place,” mayor Jan van Zanen told Hong Liem. Because Liem is already 35 with unwavering enthusiasm for Inisiatip, an association for everyone who is attracted to the Chinese-Indonesian culture. With the activities he organized, he showed the richness of the Chinese-Indonesian culture: from sports activities, to lectures, excursions and koempolans – cozy gatherings with good food. He formed a welfare committee that provides assistance to elderly members. And was also closely involved with Stichting Inisiatip Charitatief Fonds, which mainly supports social projects in Indonesia.

Jacques (Jacob) Kuiper

Jacques Kuiper has been a technical advisor for twenty years and later a technical board member of the VVE Duttendel II. With Duttendel I and III, the flats form a municipal monument. There is a park association for the preservation and maintenance of this. In the associated park committee, Kuiper watches over the beauty of the park and a careful use of resources, but his greatest quality lies in the technical advice. He is highly appreciated, also because he is committed to the difficult operation of making a monumental complex sustainable and energy-friendly. Kuiper is seen as ‘a rock in the surf’.

Jacques Selders
‘Groot Door Collaboration’ (GDS) has always been Jacques Selders’ club. He was there 04 chairman for many years, co-organized the summer youth camps. In the 1970s, Selders became a member and later chairman of Soos De Inval on Staringstraat, where people with and without disabilities could come into contact with each other. He organized activities, helped members apply for subsidies and digitized the administration. The Raid could be 50 anniversary, but corona meant the end after that.

Johannes Jacobus Spek

As manager of the Houtrusthallen, Jan Spek not only received celebrities, including Pope John Paul II, he was already a volunteer in the port, as coordinator and executor at the Flaggetjesdag foundation and at the North Sea regatta foundation where he was in charge of all logistical and facility components of the event. In addition, he has been since 1995 closely involved in the Meeuwen en Makrelen Loop Foundation, now as chairman.

Jerry Tetro
In his work, as a shift scheduler at ProRail, his volunteer work and in his private life, Jerry Tetro is a man who cares about others. To his (step)father, and especially to his brother Jeffrey, who lives at ‘s Heerenloo, a care center for people with disabilities. Every Friday, Jeffrey goes home with his brother, when the occupancy in the institution is thin. Tetro is already 20 years active as a volunteer at the sports and leisure association of the railway, now secretary of the darts club. Also an involved neighbor in his own neighborhood, someone who helps people with what they can no longer do themselves.

Karst Overwijk

Karst Overwijk was there when the Morgenweide neighborhood association was founded. Morgenweide, part of Ypenburg. Overwijk has held various administrative positions in recent years: maintained contacts with other neighborhood organizations and the municipality, arranged subsidies and accounted for the finances. He is also already 18 year a volunteer who rolls up their sleeves.

Kees (Cornelis Adrianus) Berenbak

Kees Berenbak stands for ‘his’ Laakkwartier. Is the initiator of actions for neighborhood improvement in Laak, interlocutor of administrators and point of contact for the press. He does everything he can to assist residents who are having a hard time. Started a project to make elderly people resistant to ‘chat tricks’ and uses his experience as a nurse on the ambulance for community activities, such as CPR and AED lessons. For students from schools in The Hague, he organized a visit to the ambulance service so that they gain respect for emergency workers. Berenbak is a champion of neighborhood participation and co-founder (2018) of ‘The neighborhood controls Laak.

Paul Buijtelaar

Becoming mayor of the neighborhood Paul Buijtelaar has been mentioned, with a long track record. Among other things, twenty-five years as chairman, coordinator of activities and representative of VVE ‘t Kleine Hout. He kept himself busy with countless other matters concerning Houtwijk and Loosduinen.
Buitelaar was also active for a long time for the first aid department in The Hague, jointly responsible for first aid at major events, such as the Tong Tong Fair and the annual police patrol. Special hobby: music bands that play at the reception of a new ambassador at Noordeinde Palace, capture it on video and put it on YouTube.

Riet (Maria Anna) van Beveren
Together with the cooking team, Riet van Beveren already provided 16.60 four-course meals for single elderly people. To eat in the Wijkwinkel (Scheveningen), to pick up or delivered to your home. If possible, made with vegetables from the community garden, which Van Beveren manages himself. She coordinates all activities in that Wijkwinkel: from AED courses, clover jackets and drawing lessons, to yoga and language lessons. She is already 11 years secretary of the Northern Scheveningen Residents’ Association, 7 years of the Joint Scheveningen Residents’ Organizations (GSBO), coordinator of the neighborhood intervention and member of the nuisance working group at Scheveningen.

Yvonne (Petronella Frederika) Hartman-van der Ark
Yvonne Hartman’s volunteer CV contains singing, money and contacts. For forty years now, Hartman has been singing in the Deo Sacrum choir at the services of the Roman Catholic Parish of the Four Evangelists in Loosduinen. She is also treasurer there.

At the Houtwijk district council, she helps with activities to bring people together in the district. Here, too, she manages the greenhouse. And, because it is seen that she is ‘good with money’, she was also asked to keep the finances in order at the first aid association Loosduinen. At the Loosduinen committee, she is active in the welfare and management working group.

Andre (Andreas Wilhelmus Maria) Marsé

Andre Marsé is described as ‘a bridge builder’ by the people who nominated him for this Royal award. As a board member, he has been committed to the Cultural Center for years mWarenar in Wassenaar. For almost ten years (since 2014) he is the financial man who made this center flourish again. By 1989 until 2018 Andre – living in The Hague – was a volunteer at the Wassenaar Rescue Brigade; first as a beach service leader and then on the board. He is also well known in the hamlet of Kerkehout in Wassenaar; he provides cooking lessons and meals for neighbors who, just like Andre, like to meet other, new people. For this and more, Andre Marse, who therefore also has many ties with our neighborhood municipality, will receive a ribbon today from the mayor Leendert de Lange of the municipality of Wassenaar.