firmm reaches for the stars for children living with an illness or disability.

Text: Sevi Golinvaux, photos: Adriana

Every year, as one of the French-speaking members of the team, my colleague Nina entrusts me with a mission. She asks me to look after a family from the Etoile Filante Foundation for a few days, as they come to Tarifa for a week to fulfil their child's dream of seeing dolphins and whales in the wild. It's always a special event for the family, an important moment that they share together and that gets them out of their everyday lives.

Foundation Etoile Filante – Sternschnuppe

The foundation Etoile Filante (english: shooting star) is dedicated to bringing moments of happiness to children living with an illness or disability. Based in Lausanne, the foundation has its head office in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, in Zurich, where it is known as Stiftung Sternschnuppe.

Since 1993, the foundation has been offering exceptional experiences to these children and teenagers. In total, the foundation's team has fulfilled more than 3,939 children's dreams, supported 1,294 projects and provided 4,148,90 tickets to leisure activities.

Meeting the foundation firmm

In 2000, Katharina met the president of the foundation and they soon realised that they were both on the same wavelength, with their desire to give children who want to see dolphins and whales the opportunity to realise their dream, here in the Strait of Gibraltar..
Since then, the foundation has enabled dozens and dozens of children to spend a few days in Tarifa watching the marine mammals with us.

Katharina, who loves children, has often visited these young visitors in Switzerland during the winter months. And many families have also attended our meeting in Aarau, where we always reserve a large table at the front especially for them.
In the meantime, some children have sadly passed away, but some family members continue to come to Tarifa to watch the whales and dolphins from our boats.

This year in June, Gabriel came with his brother Luca, his mum and his aunt to fulfil his dream of seeing dolphins and whales. The first two days of the week were too windy to go out to sea, so they took the opportunity to visit the Rock of Gibraltar and the city of Tangier.

But then the whale-watching conditions were optimal and the family was able to enjoy the pilot whales and dolphins in the Strait to the fullest. The two brothers had the time of their lives running from left to right to follow the dolphins and pilot whales swimming around the boat. On the later trips, they were already able to recognise the different species of dolphins and whales themselves. You could tell from their radiant faces that they'd had an unforgettable time on board our boat.

Here is a testimonial from the family of Gabriel:

My son Gabriel has always dreamt of seeing dolphins and whales
Thanks to the Foundation Étoile Filante, which made his dream come true, we were able to go to Tarifa. We spent 4 wonderful mornings on board the firmm boat.
We were lucky enough to observe these beautiful mammals coming close to the boat to say hello.
We even saw a little baby approaching to play near the boat. The staff were extraordinary and took great care to make us feel comfortable. They gave us a great information session on dolphins and whales.
Thank you Sevi for being there for us and we hope to come back for another wonderful adventure.
I support firmm in the work they do to protect these beautiful marine animals.

Well done to Étoile Filante for helping these children realise their dream of seeing dolphins and whales in the wild. We look forward to continuing our collaboration with dozens and dozens of children and their families.