26 Jul Third-generation day 2021: report (Jul ’21)

Posing boldly in front of the lens. Or with a goofy mouth. They were clearly in the mood. By ‘them’ we mean Mats, Ella, Amber, Ise and Stan. The five oldest Claes descendants of the third generation.

Thursday, July 1, 2021. The first day of summer holidays. Even though the grey cloud cover suggested otherwise. But Mats, Ella, Amber, Ise and Stan seemed to care very little about that. Their cheerful and exuberant shouting in front of the entrance immediately caused local brightenings over the DADDY KATE buildings in Sint-Pieters-Leeuw. After a relaxed photo shoot, the five were expected at Marc Mombaerts‘ house. As a teacher of graphic communication and independent graphic expert, he was the most perfect person to kick off this third-generation day. So they talked about the future of print. How ecological is it all? Is it possible that printing will become obsolete? Where do you all find print in everyday life?

After a barrage of questions – from both directions – the youthful company split into two teams. The boys versus the girls. They were given a whole day to complete numerous search and do tasks.

WHO SEEKS FINDS

As a warm-up, they were sent into the production hall with a bundle of photographs. Were they perceptive enough to find all the details, as well as the well-hidden envelopes containing a question or tip that could be useful to them later that day?

LET’S DO THIS

After the photo quest, it was time for some doing assignments. For example, the sleuths had to look for the employee with the most tattoos, or to rack their brains (and that on the first day of the holiday!) with theory questions or about a small riddle. Who’s thinking?

IN-BETWEEN

Between assignments, some fun, personalised production orders provided the necessary variety. In this way, the children were interactively introduced to some of the steps in the extensive production process. For instance, a folder and large upright panels rolled off the presses, showing their idol. Or stickers with the group photo they had taken in the morning.

THE SMARTEST GENERATION

To end an instructive but mostly fun day, the teams slid around the table for a game of ‘The smartest DK generation in the world’. A last chance to boost the point total. Curious about the result? Well… it was close, but the girls eventually made it by barely a few points from the boys. Congratulations! They won (just like the boys, by the way) a candy box to lick their thumbs and fingers at, but perhaps even more so knowledge, experience and hopefully a lot of enthusiasm to fly in with eight in a few years. Indeed: with eight – you read that correctly – because on that same first day of the holiday, Coco, the youngest Claes descendant, also saw the light of day.

Thanks to everyone who helped make this third generation day a success!