About Horten Marsjklubb
The Horten Marching Club (Horten Marsjklubb) is a non-profit organisation and a member of the National Sports Federation of Norway. The Club was established in March 1981 and it originally was ”The Horten Cruising Club”.
Since 1975, walking has become popular in Norway and it has been promoted by the International Federation of Popular Sports (Internationaler Volksport Verband (IVV)), which was founded in 1968 by national associations from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, and Liechtenstein with a view to supporting friendship and peace through non-competitive popular sport activities.
The IVV’s goals and values were assimilated by the Norwegian population. Thus, many associations have joined the IVV. The Horten Cruising Club then became Horten Marsjklubb.
Since walking was very popular in Horten, the association has promoted regular attendance at events in Norway and abroad, while intercultural exchanges were included permanently.
The challenge of the circuit walk (Turmarsj) was launched in Nykirke, Vestfold Region, Norway, in the ’80s. Even in the first marches, the number of participants exceeded 1,000 people.
Horten Marsjklubb organises two main marches a year: Horten Bymarsj, at the end of March, and Støvelmarsjen, at the beginning of November.
Horten Marsjklubb had previously a partnership with the EuroTrainer Association within two projects. The first project – ’Initiating a Romanian-Norwegian partnership for a Romanian-Norwegian intercultural walking’ – was financed by the Fund for Bilateral Relations at National Level – Programme RO01. The second project – ’Marking and promoting three cultural walking trails in Bucharest, Targoviste and Cluj-Napoca’ – was financed by the Fund for Bilateral Relations at National Level, Call II – Extension, Programme RO01 – Technical Assistance and Bilateral Fund at National Level, EEA Norway.
EuroTrainer Association
The EuroTrainer Association was established in 2006, as a private, non-governmental, non-profit and independent legal entity, under Government Ordinance no. 26/2000 on associations and foundations.
The headquarters of the association is in Bucharest.
Association’s aim
The association was established to promote European values, including national values, through educational, social, civic, cultural, artistic, sports, tourist, ecological, and interdisciplinary activities intended for people of any age. (art. 2 of the updated Constitutive Act).
The Association’s branch in Târgoviște
Since 2016, the EuroTrainer association has opened a branch (walking club) in Târgoviște, without legal personality, whose main objectives are:
- to promote local cultural values and initiate cultural exchange at national and international level
- to support the aims of preserving the cultural heritage.
Activities
Activities that have been carried out so far:
- informing the public about the European construction, by issuing free online newsletters on European topics;
- making the public aware of the nature and key competencies that are needed for the personal and professional development, as defined in EU documents;
- developing and providing training programmes in the field of social and civic skills;
- introducing Romania into the international walking circuit by organizing circuit events, based on tourist attractions and nationally representative cultural places and buildings (www.walking.eurotrainer.ro)
Since 2009, the Association has become a member of the Internationaler Volksport Verband – IVV (International Popular Sports Federation), whose aim has been to contribute to mutually knowing and good understanding between nations, by encouraging international friendship, socialization and volunteering within noncompetitive events of walking, cycling, and swimming.
Under this capacity, the members of the association organized walking-related activities at Bucharest, Brasov, Poiana Brasov, Sibiu, Cluj-Napoca and Târgoviște, which were attended by tourists from Norway, Luxembourg, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Italy, France, the United States of America, Japan, South Korea, and Romania. In 2012, EuroTrainer hosted a group of 60 Norwegians. For them, the members of the association organized a 4-day programme in the region of Brașov, Poiana Brașov, Râșnov, Bran. There, the walking-related activities on representative circuits for this region were completed with cultural activities (visits to museums, castles, dinner and show in the Medieval Town of Brașov, participation in urban art events, etc.). A film was made with some of the relevant aspects of the programme. The film was then offered to the participants. The programme was included in the permanent offer of the Association.
For more details, please visit https://walking.eurotrainer.ro/draculawalk/
From 2012 to 2014, the Association was partner in the Project ’European Perspectives on raising social competencies of offenders’, financed by the ’Grundvig Programme, Partnership for Learning’. Together with partners from Lithuania (Vsl Elektrenu Profesionio Mokimo Centras), Greece (3rd Second Chance School in Thessaloniki), Spain (Cepa Yucatan), Italy (Ministry of Justice), United Kingdom (South London Business), Turkey (Antalya Republic Attorney General Protection Board Presidency), EuroTrainer has contributed to the development of teaching and learning tools to help law breaker to reintegrate into society and not to return to criminal behaviour. The tools were created for the European context, they were tested in different countries, and the experience of different communities was generalized.
In 2015, the EUROTRAINER Association implemented the Project ‘Initiation of a Romanian-Norwegian partnership for the Romania-Norway intercultural walking’, financed by the Fund for Bilateral Relations at National Level – Program RO01, EEA Norway, which was followed by another project that was funded by EEA Norway: ’Marking and promoting three cultural walking routes in Bucharest, Târgoviște and Cluj-Napoca’.
Cultural exchanges are a priority for the EuroTrainer Association. International walking-related activities highlight the national cultural heritage. Building an appropriate infrastructure, i.e. cultural routes marked with the identification elements of the IVV, is the prerequisites for promoting the national cultural heritage at a global level (the federation members come from all continents).