Knight of the Order of Oranje-Nassau

Ridder van de Orde van Oranje Nassau

by Hein van Oorschot

April 2020. 

Anne van Oorschot is one the founding members of the  tilburg international club.

She established the club in 2008 and served as its first president for 6 years.

She recently received a decoration from the Royal House of the Netherlands (Ridder van de Orde van Oranje Nassau) in April 2020!

What is the Ridder van de Orde van Oranje Nassau?

The Order of Orange-Nassau is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the Queen regent Emma, acting on behalf of her under-age daughter Queen Wilhelmina.

The order is a chivalric order open to “everyone who has earned special merits for society”. These are people who deserve appreciation and recognition from society for the special way in which they have carried out their activities.

Anne’s many years of contributing to Dutch Society

Anne was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA. She moved to The Netherlands in 1981 and married Hein van Oorschot in 1982. She became a Dutch citizenship in 2003. They have 3 children (all in their 30’s) and Anne took up many volunteer jobs which led to the Royal recognition.

To receive a knighthood of this level is impressive and the applicant must be endorsed by many supporters and have accomplished outstanding activities. tíc was Anne’s primary advocate. Here is just a small list of Anne’s achievements over the years:

• She was in the Board of the American Women’s Club of The Hague for 6 years (2 years as president). In this function she organized the FAWCO (Federation of American Women’s Clubs worldwide) Global Conference 2004 in The Hague. Between 2002 and 2008, she was co-organizer of the AWC- Pink Ribbon Galas to help finance breast cancer research. The AWC contributed more than  € 1,000,000 to this program via the gala’s.
• She was member of the OAR (Oversees Americans Remember)-committee for 10 years.  The OAR  organizes “American” events in The Netherlands (September 11th Memorial, Thanksgiving, Martin Luther King Day, Dutch-American Friendship Day, Memorial Day and Independence Day) and once every 4 years Who’s the President Breakfast in the Kurhaus The Hague). Before she was in the OAR she was already present as one of 8 “interesting” (mostly American) women at the breakfast with Barbara Bush in Hotel Gerlach-Limburg when the Presidential couple visited Margraten cemetery in May 2005.
• She was a very active partner when her husband was Mayor of Delft. She was named Delft’s citizen of the year in 2002.
• She took the initiative for the support ribbon for the Dutch military in Afghanistan (2007-2009).
• Since 2007, she has served as the Chair of the FAWCO Environmental Committee, a FAWCO-awareness-program to involve it’s 60.000 members in the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
• Serve as Chair for FAWCO’s Water Target Program from 2009 – 2013 to collect funds ($162.500,00) for water projects in Cambodia. Her FAWCO program visits included Boston, USA; Marrakech, Morocco; London, England; Languedoc-Roussillon region, France; Munich, Germany; Dubai, UAE; Dublin, Ireland; Bern, Switzerland.
• All her FAWCO activities brought her the FAWCO Caroline Curtis Brown Spirit Award in 2013.
• She organized 2 sponsor dinners for the restoration of the Maria church in Tilburg-Noord.

Royal Ribbon ceremony

The majority of Lintjes (Royal ribbons) are bestowed on the King’s birthday in April during the Lintjes Regen (Rain of Ribbons). Due to the Covid-outbreak, Anne’s official ceremony couldn’t be celebrated properly, but tíc President, Yolonda van Riel, honored Anne in her speech at this year’s 2020 Welcome Event.

We are thrilled to recognize Anne for receiving this prestigious award for all her years of volunteer service to Dutch society (and especially our club!) over the past 20+ years.