Page 21 - ARUBA BANK

A16 LOCAL
Friday 4 January 2019

The 2019 Unox Nieuwjaarsduik at MooMba was at risk

The story behind the orange Unox hats

ment received notice that A seat on the TUI Dream- Calls where made to the
the container with the Unox liner was booked and a TUI head office to get per-
hats was stranded in Cura- MooMbs staffer was sent mission to bring on board
cao, being disembarked for a round trip to the the entire cargo, clearly
there by accident. Con- Netherlands on a mission exceeding the maximum
tacting Curacao Customs to bring back the orange weight allowance. But not
learned that the container hats on time for the Nieuw- only did TUI approve of
could not be opened there jaarsduik. In the meantime, the extra cargo, they even
and that the container had Unox had shipped off new waived the additional
to be shipped off again hats to a temporarily stor- costs. Chapeau for the TUI
NOORD — It was just last winter hats. A tradition that with an untouched seal. age location as they too ground crew at the airport
Tuesday January 1 that originated in The Nether- However, it would never would be closed for the and the decision makers at
st
about 1,500 enthusiastic lands and is sponsored by make it on Aruba on time. holidays. the main office. Everybody
participants of the annual Unox, a supplier of Dutch Other options as UPS, FedEx After a 12-hour flight the seemed to realize that you
Unox New Year’s Plunge pea soup. The orange hats and KLM Cargo could also MooMba representative can’t have a New Year’s
ran into the Caribbean Sea are such a big part of the not get new hats in Aruba arrived in the Netherlands Plunge without the hats
at MooMba Beach for the tradition that you can’t on time due to the holi- on Sunday December and that you can’t disap-
traditional “Nieuwjaars- imagine not having them days, so there was only one 30th. After renting a vehi- point so many people on
duik”. For over 10 years lo- during the event… well, we option left… book a flight cle big enough to carry on the beach of Aruba.
cals and tourists the same came close to that. Let’s go to the Netherlands and 10 boxes, he arrived at the After a smooth but long
gather at noon sharp at the back in time a little… send someone to pick up storage location to collect flight the messenger finally
popular beach bar to run the hats. But how can you the hats later that day. The arrived in Aruba with the
towards the sea wearing On Thursday December bring 1,000 hats (10 boxes) next flight back to Aruba boxes, with the hats. At
the typical orange Unox 27th MooMba’s manage- as luggage? would not leave until the that time, it was already
31st, so in the early hours New Year’s Eve, just a few
just 1 day before New Year hours before Aruba cus-
he took the boxes with hats toms would close for the
to Amsterdam airport. But night and just hours prior
how to you get 10 boxes of to the event at MooMba
hats with a weight of 80kg Beach. Fist Class VIP service
from the car rental cen- at Aruba Airport was gra-
ter to the check in desk of cious enough to assist with
TUI, about a 20 minutes’ the boxes and to roll them
walk? That’s where Lennie out of the airport… at that
came in. Lennie is supervi- time it became clear: Aru-
sor at the porter service of ba would have the Unox
Amsterdam Airport and he Nieuwjaarsduik in 2019 at
was willing to clear his al- MooMba Beach. And so,
ready overly full schedule it happened… about 1,500
to carry the boxes to the participated in the event,
check in area. He was so happy faces all around,
struck by the story that he orange Unox hats every-
even waived their fee. The where to be seen. If they
look on the faces of the TUI just knew the story behind
ground crew was memora- the hats. The Nieuwjaars-
ble when being confront- duik 2019 was saved just on
ed with 10 boxes of lug- time.
gage for the Aruba flight. Happy New Year!q