The past couple of weeks has seen events to celebrate the conclusion of the Julia’s House ‘Great Tail Trail’ project. I wrote previously about the concept, the company behind these trails across the UK and beyond, Wild In Art and how our business, Grapevine came to be involved in this trail as a sponsor and longtime supporter of Julia’s House.
Having been placed across Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole throughout the spring, the full collection of tall and tiny tails were brought back together in one room at the BIC for two days. I was fortunate to get a preview of them in storage back in March, but to see them positioned in the round of the Purbeck Hall was quite a sight.
Even making the school boy error of leaving my glasses in the car didn’t restrict me too much from appreciating the beautiful detail of each work of art, for the second to last time.
The last time came a week later at the auction event held at The Italian Villa in the grounds of Compton Acres. The tall tails looked equally stunning in this location, situated around the ornate pond at the foot of the villa building.
We had hoped that we may get to leave with the tiny tail we sponsored, ‘Shake Your Tailfeather’ by Jina Gelder (above), but we were gloriously outbid and more than happy to see it go for a price that would mean an even greater donation to Julia’s House.
At the beginning of the auction we were told that 24 hours care for a child in the hospice’s end of life suite costs around £3,000. Alongside heartbreaking stories from the nursing team and a parent of a child cared for by Julia House, this was the context we all needed to hear to dig as deep as we could in our pockets once the auction began.
Professional auctioneer and star of Bargain Hunt, Charlie Ross was our host for the main event and thoroughly entertained us from start to finish, 3 hours and £200,000 later.
We were determined not to leave empty handed and were lucky to bring home a very special piece of the trail, the flagship tiny tail used throughout the campaign, featuring the fantastic key art by Judy Guillery a.k.a Judee Tree. It’s now taken pride of place in our Poole office as a memento of the unforgettable experience we’ve had as ambassadors of the project from the day we came onboard.
To learn more about the vitally important work of Julia’s House please visit their website: www.juliashouse.org
Liam Toms 