Every year the mayor or an alderman goes out to congratulate centenarians, or to celebrate a golden or diamond wedding anniversary. A bouquet, a photo for the municipal Facebook page, an official document: it is a fine tradition. But what if family lives abroad and cannot be there? What if former colleagues or neighbours would also like to say something, but do not know how?
An extra layer on top of the existing visit
More and more municipalities choose to add a digital wish page via Wens on Web alongside the official visit. The idea is simple: the municipality or a family member creates a page for the person being honoured, and shares the link with everyone who wants to leave a message. That can be a text, but also a photo from earlier years or a short video clip.
Who can respond
Not only the immediate family. Neighbours, former colleagues, members of the local seniors' association or the card club the honouree belonged to for years can also leave a message. For centenarians who lived in the municipality for decades, the list of possible senders often grows to dozens of people who would otherwise never find their way to a congratulations card.
How it works in practice
The civil affairs service or the social welfare centre creates the page as soon as an anniversary is known. The link is shared via the municipal newsletter, social media, or passed on directly to the family. Wishes come in until a few days before the visit. Just before the visit everything is bundled: as a PDF to print, or as a digital overview shown on a tablet during the visit itself.
Why this is more than a nice extra
For the honouree it is an unexpected gift on top of the official visit: the realisation that so many people thought of them. For the municipality it is a way to give the existing protocol, which is organised anyway, a personal and visible added value without extra workload for civil affairs. The organisation stays the same, only the end result becomes richer.
A longer-term effect
Anyone who once shared a wish page for a family member thinks of it again later at another birthday, anniversary or farewell. That is how the platform spreads by itself within a municipality, from one household to the next, without advertising effort.
