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Humans of de Bongerd: Herman Hendriksen

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June 30, 2017

Herman works as the groundsman at Sports Centre de Bongerd, for already 26 years now. He takes care of the greenery, the terrain and all the sports fields at de Bongerd.
Before, he was doing construction work for the municipality. When he started working at de Bongerd, Herman was very busy with the maintenance of the tennis courts. Over the past decade his tasks at de Bongerd have become more diverse.

Herman works four days a week, Wednesday is his free day. He cycles all the way from Lunteren to de Bongerd, a ride of about 15 kilometre, so 30 kilometres per day. His working days always start at 6:00 AM and end at 3:00 PM. The workload isn’t much different in the summer compared to the winter. There is always something do to. ‘Only the type of work can be different’ says Herman. In the winter, the work can be tough when the snow needs to be removed from the sports fields. In the summer, all the plants, bushes and the grass fields grow very fast, resulting in a lot of pruning work.

‘Working as a groundsman suits me very well, because I like to work outside in the fresh air’ says Herman. He also likes the contact with the board members of Thymos during the coffee breaks. He only thinks it is a pity that they leave after one year. By the time he knows the Thymos board members quite well, the new board is almost ready to start. ‘But that’s how it is’, he says.

Besides his work at de Bongerd, Herman likes to drive his own horse. From the age 5 years, Herman’s passion is horse riding. He also used to ride in competition. Nowadays he rides his horse 2 times a week. Another leisure time activity of Herman is motor riding. Every now and then he makes a tour on his Yamaha R6.