If you live in the North East or if you have visited recently, then you will have seen or at least know about Elmer’s elephants that have been spread across Tyne and Wear, all to raise money and awareness for St Oswald’s Children’s Hospice.
For 11 weeks you will find 50 big and 114 little individually painted elephant sculptures in the region.
I have downloaded the app- the money for that goes to the charity. So I and my family went in search of the elephants.
Using the app, you can see the blue dot that highlights your location and the elephants that are close to you pop up in yellow- showing big and little heard. You can click on the elephant and it gives you an image, location and name of that elephant. Once you have found said elephant, you will see a code on the white base of the sculpture- you then enter that code on the app that allows you to unlock it. You can take photos of it and upload it to the app and share it on social media.
I think it is a great idea as it means you can potentially explore places in the region that you may have not visited before. So far I think I have found 20+ and on my search, there was one Elmer that I had to locate.
And that was Telly the Elephant by BBC Radio Newcastle presenter Alfie Joey. Alfie is a very talented artist, so I was dying to see what he had done to Elmer.
You may be able to guess where Telly is by this photo, but as you can see Alfie has drawn little tv’s and featured some famous regional icons.
Do you recognise any of these famous faces?
We went all over (not quite ALL over) the region to see if we got spot any and there was a particular elephant in the Sunderland coastal area that took us ages to find.
Pictured here, I had never visited this part of Sunderland before. I wonder if you know where it is? It was so much fun trying to use the map on the app to figure out where exactly it was and it was such a relief when we did see it.
I don’t want to give it away but it is in a lovely part of the coast and I really enjoyed being there- taking in the sun, sea and the smell of fish and chips. Speaking of which, I really enjoyed this elephant. Again in a similar area of Sunderland, I liked how it had character and personality it. The designer had clearly thought about its location and what it should wear for where it is going to be.
I enjoyed this elephant as it had been done by the Northumberland Country Zoo, where I had been the day before.
This Elm Tree is a snapshot of British Native Wildlife in an old tree and I love all of the hidden woodland creatures tucked away in the picture. You will have to find it to see if you can see them too.
Elmer’s Great North Parade will be in Tyne and Wear till the 1st November 2019 with a spectacular art trail featuring individually designed elephant sculptures based on the much-loved Elmer character.
For more information click here
Gemma's Journey 