04 - Blumenau - Santa Catarina
Perfil
Official club name: The Friendship Force of Blumenau Closest major airport(s): Navegantes Airport is about 50 KMs far from Blumenau. Cost of transportation between the airport and our city (based on 20 people): the regular bus ticket costs around US$ 10.00, in the case of the group we may hire a special bus that decreases the price, it has to be checked into at a time not too far in advance of the arrival. The maximum number of Ambassadors our club can host: 21 About the club: FF-Blumenau was found in 1998, when Heloisa Bertani, who had been a member of FF-Francisco Beltrão, and full of enthusiasm motivated Janaina M. M. Manfredini for that, our first exchange was in 1998 when FF-Kiel-Germany came, it was a great experience, they were excellent first-ambassadors, after that the club has grown day be day. In 2000 we received FF-Tuxtla Gutierrez- Mexico, in 2001 our exchange was canceled, and in 2002 we had FF- Hannover-Germany… After 5 years we have an identity already, we really believe we can make the difference, and we dedicate ourselves completely. We are about 40 active members; it’s not a big number but a number of people who are truly committed with the aim of FFI. About the region: Blumenau is located in one of the most developed region of Brazil. The history begins on September 2, 1850 with Mr. Hermann Bruno Otto Blumenau, a chemist and pharmacist born in Hassefeld, Germany. Dreamt of a settlement. A group of seventeen German immigrants arrived at the border of Ribeirão da Velha, a tributary of the Itajaí-Açú River. These pioneers had come to colonize the soil that was given by the Brazilian Imperial Government to Mr. Blumenau. Blumenau was born under the sign of singularity. While Brazil lived with the slavery system, the city emphasized as a place of dream, freedom, work dedication and a high sense for education and culture. As a proof of this, it must be mentioned that, a slaveholder could not stay longer that 48 hours in the city. Without schools, houses or other amusements, the immigrants had to use their creativity and perseverance in order to transform the hard reality of the forest. The first families brought from Germany only the most necessary material to settle the schools and to beginning his plantation. At the beginning it was only a little downtown, the greater number of the people lived around there and the principal occupation was the agriculture, but the artisans work and the weavers had given to Blumenau a new performance. So around the year 1880 the “Trikotwaren Fabrik Gebrueder Hering” (Hering Knitting Factory) start the development on the textiles business and they are yet one of the biggest knitting factories on the world, known as Hering Textile, but it is not more a family factory, like others as Artex and Crystals Hering. At the present we have two other crystal glasses factories, Crystallerie Strauss and Glasspark. At all places on the city we can find interesting cultural details: