Queen Mary celebrates milestone with Mary Foundation

Queen Mary of Denmark marked the 10th anniversary of the Mary Foundation’s Antibulli campaign.

The Queen, who is Chairman of the organisation, attended the event on 24 September at Østerbrohuset in Copenhagen.

She was welcomed by the Director of the Mary Foundation, Helle Østergaard, leaders of Antibulli and children who are taking part in the initiative.

Photo: The Mary Foundation

The event began with a speech by Her Majesty, where she said, “The Mary Foundation’s basic idea with Antibulli was – and still is – simple. The association, the club and the team should be a safe and nice place to be. No matter who you are. And no matter how good you are at passing, jumping, diving, serving or dribbling.

“Because leisure time is an important part of children and young people’s lives and can do something very special. Here children and young people can find friends. Experience that they belong. Become better at something they love. And be part of something that reaches beyond themselves.”

Photo: The Mary Foundation

The Queen, who donned an Antibulli t-shirt, went on to stress that all children need to feel seen and praised the work of the organisation. She shared a story from a young boy who said he had a hard time making friends and used his experience to share why the work of Antibulli is so important.

“We must take that experience seriously. It’s experiences like this that we want to change with Antibulli. Because everyone on the team needs to feel seen, and they need to feel that their contribution to the community, to the team, and to training has value,” she said. 

The Queen concluded by saying, “And I hope that even more children and young people will have the opportunity to experience leisure communities like yours. Because as we say at Antibulli: Unity always wins.”

Later, she took part in four anti-bullying exercises alongside the children. Afterwards, she participated in a discussion with representatives of the organisations helping Antibulli: Danish Football Union, Swimming Denmark, Danish Tennis Federation, Gym Denmark, Danish Equestrian Federation, Badminton Denmark, DGI Greater Copenhagen and Hej Fonden.

On Antibulli, the Royal House explained, “Antibulli is a well-being-promoting tool for coaches, consisting of concrete and freely available advice and exercises for training 6-12 year olds. The goal is to create a team and club culture with high tolerance and safe communities, where everyone respects each other, speaks properly and helps others.”

It was originally launched with just the sport of handball but has now grown to include seven sports: football, swimming, tennis, gymnastics, horseback riding and badminton.

You can find out more about the Mary Foundation here.