Social
The regional award was presented for the twelfth time in Salzburg on Wednesday. The district papers honor innovative projects in various areas of society. After the mini-event in the previous year – because of the lockdowns – this year the party was back to normal.
Around a hundred visitors came to the award ceremony on Wednesday evening.
Help for the homeless and the poor
This year’s prize in the “Health and Quality of Life” category goes to the “Virgilbus”. For seven years, homeless people or people who cannot afford health insurance have received free medical care. The project runs on a voluntary basis, describes the doctor and NEOS politician Sebastian Huber, who is involved in the “Virgilbus”: “We were able to help around 5,000 people from almost every continent on earth and provide them with medical care.”
Municipal multipurpose shuttle bus
The “W3 Shuttle” project in Werfenweng (Pongau) won the prize in the “Transport and Mobility” category. A sophisticated system with minibuses is intended to encourage commuters to take public transport to work.
On the other hand, holidaymakers should also be motivated to travel without their own car, emphasizes Werfenweng’s Mayor Peter Brandauer (ÖVP): “We currently transport 37,000 people a year with this shuttle. This affects commuters who come to us in town, including locals who go shopping. Then there are our holiday guests. “
LED lamps save a lot of electricity
In the “Resource Management and Sustainability” category, the Barmherzigen Brüder hospital in the state capital received an award – for an energy-saving concept in which many lightbulbs were converted to LEDs.
Albert Webersberger is the hospital’s technical director: “Just replacing the lamps in our kitchen saved us around 15,000 kilowatt hours of electricity. The kitchen is of course very busy in a hospital. “
A role model for other regions
Managing director Michael Kretz from the Salzburger Bezirksbl Blätter emphasizes that many projects have been honored in the twelve years that would have set themselves apart as role models for other regions: “There you had similar initial situations and you saw that there were already solutions in Salzburg.”
A total of 13 innovative projects were awarded the Salzburg Regional Prize today.