On June 3rd, the Vancouver Westside German School celebrated its 30^th anniversary at the Austria Vancouver Club in Richmond.

After welcoming remarks by VWGS board president Steven Seewald, the numerous guests learned about the history of the school through an entertaining quiz before VWGS principal Ute Steves introduced her dedicated teaching staff to the audience.

Hans Stocker, German Deputy Consul General, and Andreas Meckes, German Language Advisor for Western Canada (ZfA), took the opportunity to congratulate the entire VWGS school family and say “dankeschön” for their commitment to the promotion of German language and culture during the past 30 years.

The Vancouver Westside German School is one of only 10 schools in Western Canada which offer the Deutsches Sprachdiplom (DSD) German language proficiency exams and are officially recognized by the Federal Republic of Germany. The anniversary celebration was therefore a perfect occasion to hand out the official DSD II certificates to the successful VWGS graduates who had demonstrated a high level of German language proficiency (B2 or C1 of the CEFR -Common European Framework of Reference for Languages) through this year’s exams. Congratulations!

The official program concluded with a happy birthday song performed in German by the youngest students and a traditional dance performance by the Vancouver “Alpen Plattler”.

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Special thanks are due to two generous donors: Steven Seewald, and his company ALARA Environmental Health and Safety Ltd. presented a $1,500 cheque to the winners of a writing contest and Andreas Koechl, president of the Austria Vancouver Club donated $1,000 CAD to the school in the name of his company Putzmaus America.