Houten, the Netherlands

Fully Operational (FO) presently in process of reelecting a new Regional Coordinator and new Regional Support Team members.

The Houten region started at the time when stepdance was introduced to Europe by the Nubian Gents, a stepdance team from Brooklyn NY, in the years since 1999. That year the Heijtink family returned from the International Youth Festival in Liberec and started together with Dick Boersma a stepteam which later became So-Double-U patterned after the dances and expression of the Nubian Gents.

In 2006 a Houten First Contact Team went to Slovenia to start the mission of Bridgebuilders in the town of Murska Sobota. A year later several Houten youth joined a Bridgebuilders One project of one week in the same town. In 2008 a Houten First Contact Team went to the USA to recruit a partner group to develop a new outpost in Central Europe.

When people in the Netherlands think of Houten, they think of bicycles. Houten is the bike town of Holland. The town is laid out in such a way that you can get to other places in town better and quicker by bike than by car. So is there anyone in Houten who does not have a bike? Not likely. Houten is also still considered a small town but growing quickly. It is located in the middle of the country just a few kilometres south of the big city of Utrecht.

The Boersma families. Presently two different Boersma families are involved in the Regional Support team now that the ‘kids’ of the Heijtink family have grown up.

After the First Contact Team to the USA there was a time of reflection and in the spring of 2009 a new Regional Support Team started to develop plans to start a new Bridgebuilders Club. The plan is to host a group from another country in Houten in the summer of 2010.

No Bridgebuilders Club at present. Plans to start one in 2010 to host a group from another country in Houten in the summer of 2010.

Email: atlanticbridge AT bcocs DOT com