Tree of Hope branches out with an innovative way of raising money to help more sick children

TUNBRIDGE WELLS, U.K. - June 7, 2013 - PRLog -- Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 7th June, 2013:  Tree of Hope, based in Tunbridge Wells has used graffiti to spread its message on a huge scale. They have commissioned 30-foot high graffiti artwork in Birmingham to catch more people’s attention.

The graffiti has been spray painted onto a large wall in the centre of Birmingham that they have hired for six months. The artwork covers an entire wall on the side of a prominent custard factory.

Jeremy Marris, CEO of Tree of Hope said, “It’s the start of a new way of advertising for us. We had a lot to organise, from hiring the wall and organising the graffiti artists to making sure that the council were going to be happy with it but we are really pleased with the result. The artwork looks fabulous and we believe that it will make a real difference to the amount of support we can give to sick children who cannot get the treatments they need on the NHS.”

The graffiti artwork, or “street art” was designed and painted by graffiti4hire, a Birmingham based creative agency. Jeremy said that the charity “gave them the Tree of Hope logo and the Vodafone JustTextGiving details, and asked them what they could make of it.”. Anne Mulligan, Director of graffiti4hire said “When Tree of Hope approached us to get involved with creating awareness for a good cause, we jumped at it. Especially when we are able to create such an effective piece. We love clients who are just as passionate as us in using graffiti in unconventional ways and allowing us the freedom to do what we do best!”.

Vodafone also played an important part in this project. Tree of Hope has been using the JustTextGiving service from Vodafone for the past couple of years as this service makes it easy for Tree of Hope to raise money by text message. The JustTextGiving code is prominent in the artwork where people are encouraged to “Text TREE01 £10 to 70070”. Jeremy has high praise for Vodafone’s JustTextGiving service and explained that “the service is easy for people to use and every penny raised comes to the charity. Plus you can also add Gift Aid.”
Tree of Hope are so pleased with the way that this project has started out that they are already looking for more buildings to spray paint with their eye-catching street art and are hopeful that their next project will be in their home town of Tunbridge Wells. They are already in discussions with AXA who are also based in Tunbridge Wells and are planning to collaborate on a project.

Meanwhile the completed Birmingham artwork can be seen for the next six months at the Custard Factory in Gibb Street in Birmingham. A time-lapse video of the making of the artwork is also available on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbMh0djfE8w).