Lööf Foundation at dinner with HRH Crown Princess Victoria
One day in November came a nice letter to Lööf Foundation. It’s not often you get nice envelopes these days and when I opened the envelope, I was so happy – an invitation to dinner with The Crown Princess Victoria during her visit in Mariestad.
It was very exciting to have the opportunity to go to the residence Marieholm in Mariestad on a regular Friday night and meet The Crown Princess Victoria. So incredibly flattering!
I had taken a teddy bear with me that was the same as the ones that the children in Nepal received
as a gift to Princess Estelle. We got to greet The Crown Princess when we were on the way into the dining room, I took the opportunity to hand over the gift, The Crown Princess was happy and we talked for a little while!
I had the head of communications in Falköpings Municipality one side and on my other side sat the Speaker of Parliament, opposite me sat Martin Lundstedt’s (CEO of Scania as well as our Chairman of the Board) wife Eva and we all had very interesting conversations throughout the evening!
After dinner we went up a staircase where we were treated to entertainment, a band from Skövde played and finished with a song called Victoria – a little appropriate!
Then we were treated to coffee in the lounge, where we got the chance to talk with The Crown Princess for a long time. I was very interested to hear more about their work in their foundation in which they want to combat exclusion and contribute to increase health of young people in Sweden. The Crown Princess supports for example the association Mind that supports people with suicidal thoughts. I talked about our work in schools in Gullspångs Municipality where coach Ola Tornberg, who normally works as a volunteer in the association Mind, supports the student in increase their well-being and mental health. The Crown Princess became noticeably touched when we talked about our efforts and I was very touched when The Crown Princess told me about their involvement in “Maskrosbarn” which is an organisation supporting children and young people growing up with addicted or mentally ill parents.
The Crown Princess thought that our material on our foundation was very nice and it made me happy and proud.
We talked a lot about our orphanage building and Johan shared knowledge how to proceed when building up in the mountains of Nepal.
I also asked a bit about how Princess Estelle was and how things was working out at her preschool. Then we took in hand and The Crown Princess mingled on.
Johan and I stood there and tried to digest what we have just been through and we when leaving we felt very happy, grateful and proud!
Sophie Lööf 21/11 2014