Gromit’s have started to appear around the city: Why The Grand Appeal is saving lives!

National World - LocalTV

One of the most talked-about sculptures on this year’s Gromit Unleashed 3 trail is already stealing the spotlight – meet Beagle 3, the space explorer Gromit created by artist Tim Sutcliffe and sponsored by Rolls-Royce.

Transcript

00:00Firstly, tell me a little bit about Wallace and Gromit's Grand Appeal.

00:03So the Grand Appeal is the charity for Bristol Children's Hospital.

00:07We're actually 30 years old this year, so we've worked in partnership with Ardman Animations from the very beginning,

00:14who very generously gave us their Wallace and Gromit characters to spearhead our fundraising.

00:20And so we work very closely with Ardman and Bristol Children's Hospital to fundraise for all sorts of things.

00:27Now, that could be vital family accommodation, life-saving, intensive care, medical kits,

00:34all through to the music therapy, art therapy. We do oncology play therapy. It's endless, really. We do a lot.

00:41Anna, tell me firstly about what is happening this year. What are we going to see in the city of Bristol?

00:48So very excitingly, we're launching our Gromit Unleashed Trail.

00:52This will be our third Gromit Unleashed Trail, which will be taken to the streets on Monday, the 30th of June.

00:5953 sculptures. We've got Wallace, Gromit, the Dastardly Feathers McGraw,

01:04and the new character, which is Norbot from Ardman's new film, Avengers Most Foul, will also be joining us.

01:11Anna, why then? Why are these characters going to be decorating the street of Bristol?

01:16So we did our first Sculpture Trail back in 2013. Sculpture Trails obviously take place across the world,

01:25but we were the first charity to do it with a licensed character.

01:30So working really closely with Ardman, we used the beautiful canvas of Gromit back then,

01:35and now we've got more sculptures, and worked with such incredibly talented artists.

01:40We're film directors, other celebrities. They go on the streets. There's a, you know,

01:47a really fun activity to do throughout the whole of the summer holidays, and then they go to auction.

01:53So you're basically putting artwork on top of artwork because you've got the beautiful, you know,

01:57Ardman characters, and then you're putting artwork on top of that. And, you know,

02:02they raise considerable sums at auction, and that's all to support Bristol Children's Hospital.

02:06Yeah, so you touched on that all about supporting the children's hospital. What are those funds that

02:13you raise from this going to do? What is the impact going to be?

02:18So, I mean, at any one time, we can be funding 100 projects at Bristol Children's Hospital and

02:24the neonatal intensive care unit at St Michael's Hospital. But that ranges from, as I said, you know,

02:29life-saving intensive care kit. Family accommodation is one of the biggest things that we do.

02:35We run three family accommodation houses. Families come, and patients come from all over the

02:41southwest. So we have patients that can be transferred from Gloucester, South Wales, Devon, Cornwall,

02:48come to Bristol for the specialist care that, you know, only Bristol can provide. And, you know,

02:53sometimes those families are staying weeks and months. So, you know,

02:57our family accommodation houses are a lifeline, really.

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