Wednesday, January 21, 2015
London’s Paddington Trail Raises Over $1.4 million for the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
LONDON
-- During the period leading up to Christmas, London was taken over by
life-sized statues of the world’s favorite furry Peruvian explorer designed by
a host of celebrities and artists as part of The Paddington Trail, sponsored by
Barclaycard. STUDIOCANAL, VisitLondon.com and the National Society for the
Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) have revealed that the public art
installation created to mark the release of PADDINGTON in cinemas has raised
over $1.4 million for the NSPCC’s ChildLine service.
Launched
on November 4, The Paddington Trail featured statues designed by celebrities
and artists including Kate Moss, Jonathan Ross, Marc Quinn, Take That, Hugh
Bonneville, Michael Sheen and Emma Watson, as well as Paddington’s fellow
adventurer, Bear Grylls. The first 15 of these unique artworks were auctioned
in December at an event at Christie’s hosted by David Heyman, producer of
PADDINGTON, and his wife Rose, both of whom are longstanding supporters of the
charity. The live auction, which also featured pieces of art including a
Paddington-inspired piece by Tracey Emin, raised over $757,000 for the
NSPCC.
Other
statues were auctioned online by Christie’s, giving people around the world the
chance to own a piece of The Paddington Trail. The auction attracted heated
bidding with London Mayor Boris Johnson’s ”Bear of London” eventually going to
a bidder in East Asia for $48,000. Other favourites were Liam Gallagher’s
“Parka Paddington” and Chelsea FC’s “The Special One”, both of which went for $19,700.
In addition, residents of the town of Fleet in Hampshire were successful in
their bid to own a piece of The Paddington Trail, securing Ant & Dec’s
“Bear Humbug” following a crowd-funding campaign supported by the local
community.
While
The Paddington Trail was live, Mayor Boris Johnson’s “Bear of London” was the
third most popular, behind athlete David Beckham’s “Golden Paws” and actor
Benedict Cumberbatch’s “Sherlock Bear” which was the most visited profile on www.visitlondon.com/paddington*.
And as Paddington fever hit London, social media was buzzing with mentions of
#PaddingtonTrail, with the campaign reaching over 37.5 million
Twitter accounts – more than the population of Peru. A map of The
Paddington Trail was downloaded over 90,000 times, and pages on the microsite
were viewed over 2.2 million times, demonstrating the Trail’s popularity.
The
money raised will help trained ChildLine volunteers provide advice and support
to children 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, some of whom are going through the
toughest times of their lives. The money will also help continue to modernize
the ChildLine service to reflect how children now prefer to get in touch.
For
those visitors to London who enjoyed exploring The Paddington Trail and would
like to support the NSPCC, text BEAR to 70744 to donate $6 and help answer a
call to ChildLine.
Intrepid
explorers who took part in The Paddington Trail can download an exclusive
certificate from www.visitlondon.com/paddington
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