The Croatian Red Cross celebrated its 130 years jubilee on 21 and 22 October 2008 with many national and international guests in Zagreb.

The festivities started with a special reception of the President of Croata, Stjepan Mesiac, who awarded Red Cross President and Director in the ILS Board Dr. Nenad Javornik with the Order of Merit “Prince Branimir on Ribbon.

ILSE President Dr. Klaus Wilkens was awarded with the “The Order of the Croatian Morning Star with the effigy of Katarian Zrinska for his support for the development of the lifeguard service at the Croatian coastline.

On this occasion Dr. Wilkens visited a lifeguard station and met the district managers in Novi Vinodolski and Rovonj, where he got an excellent impression of their work. Further a new co-operation project with DLRG for disaster prevention and lifeguard sport were discussed.