William Blair colleagues braved one of the hottest days of the year in Europe to carry an angel-shaped torch as part of a six-month-long pilgrimage across Germany to bring awareness and raise funds for families with children affected by life-limiting illnesses.
Hundreds of supporters are passing the torch this summer for the Children’s Life Run, organized by Bundesverband Kinderhospiz, Germany’s national association for children’s hospices and a William Blair community partner. The 7,200-kilometer walk began on April 7 in Berlin and ends October 8 on World Hospice Day, again in Berlin.
Traveling by foot, bicycles, boats, cars, planes, and wheelchairs, participants stop along the way at children’s hospices and celebratory events. Over the course of the pilgrimage, there are 117 stops scheduled.
For week 14, William Blair colleagues with the firm’s offices in Frankfurt and London hosted participants on July 19 in Frankfurt for an evening of music and cheer. The following day, investment bankers Philipp Mohr and Sebastian Koehler, both based in William Blair’s Frankfurt office, delivered the torch to the youth hospice in Heusenstamm.
The Bundesverband Kinderhospiz, founded in 2002, is a network of children’s hospices in Germany and works with clinics, doctors, scientists, politicians, donors, and sponsors to help children and families facing life-shortening diseases. Some 50,000 children and young people in Germany suffer from such illnesses.