We are happy to conclude that our attempt to bring together a vibrant health focused international community to celebrate ITM Thai Hand Berlin’s anniversary party on May 17, 2014 was a success. But to start from the very beginning, the birth of Thai Hand dates back to 2007, when Manel Luque Aguilera and Jorge Márquez Graffigna travelled to Thailand on a business trip and during our stay there we were introduced to the culture and tradition of ancient Thai massage. Recognizing the great benefits of this ancient healing modality the founders of Thai Hand passed their training at ITM (International Training Massage School) Chiang Mai, as well as at Wat-Po in Bangkok in 2008 and the first Thai Hand branch opened in Amsterdam in 2009 together with Nicole van Zurk. Every new beginning has its ups and down and that was also the case with our school’s beginning years in Amsterdam. First and foremost, it has always been our belief and conviction in the great benefits of the traditional Thai massage techniques, that have gotten us through the hardships and made our attempts to make these techniques available to more and more people a success. We were very proud to become the sole franchise of ITM in Europe in 2011, our business name therefore changed to ITM Thai Hand Amsterdam. 2 years ago, in 2012 ITM Thai Hand opened a second branch in Berlin and ITM Thai Hand Berlin was born. So in May 2014 it was time to have a birthday celebration filled with delicious snacks, good music, colorful people from all walks of life and of course with massage. As we wanted this to be a memorable event for our own team plus for our existing and potential new customers, we carefully planned the event in collaboration with Shaleah Dancy, developed special brochures for the event and finally sent out invitation in 3 different languages: English, German and Spanish. We are also very happy to see that an enthusiastic and helpful community is growing around Thai Hand Berlin, consisting of our students, teachers, and collaborators. The Open Day to celebrate our Anniversary would not have been the same without the exceptional cooking of our student Stephanie Morzinek. On top of dedicating her night before the event to baking, she was also present at the celebration and helped to register interested students for upcoming Level 1 and 2 courses for Thai Yoga Massage-Nuad Bo-Rarn and offered a real “taste” of traditional Thai massage by giving short sample massages to guests and friends at the party. Another certified student of ITM Thai Hand Berlin School Carola Seidl shared her professional knowledge of Thai Massage Chair with anyone who was interested. We were also happy to host Marcos Redondo Vilavedra who is an experienced therapist with over 15 years experience in many different kinds of traditional massages: Japanese, Indian Ayurvedic and of course the ancient Thai north-massage (specialty: Lanna Tok Sen) . Last but not least we want to acknowledge a group of Yoga teachers, who have recently joined Thai Hand Berlin family. Clarissa Pilz and Anita Jóri were very helpful with promoting the event and serving as friendly hosts during the party, and Liina Tael gave her input by delivering this text to you in English. Please feel free to get a glimpse of the event through pictures on our Facebook page. Our photographer and video artist of the day was Friedrich Boomgaarden. Our deepest gratitude to everyone who helped to put the celebration together and of course to all of you who attended and celebrated our special day with us!!