So it started off as Councillor Simon Seary’s “crazy” idea back in August and quickly took hold, writes Dawn Seary.
Pudsey residents (and beyond) started saving their 2 pence pieces for BBC Children in Need. The plan was to make a giant mosaic of Pudsey Bear in 2p coins on the floor of the Pudsey Leisure Centre.
Over the last few months, 2p in your change had become a holy grail. The excitement you had when the bill came to £0.98! – and the disappointment when you got two pennies in change!
So on 15th November 2018 the outline of Pudsey Bear was etched out on plastic sheeting (provided by Farmac Building Supplies) and drawn out on the floor by Councillor Mark Harrison. An army of volunteers was in place waiting to see if the plan would work – any they weren’t disappointed!
On Friday 16th November the people of Pudsey turned out in their hundreds! We had scouts and guides, pubs and cafés, child-minders, nurseries, schools, businesses, parents and children all come to the leisure centre to place their coins.
We were joined by Pudsey Bear and Kop Kat, and even though Pudsey Leisure Centre provided a bouncy castle, the BEST entertainment it would appear was rolling about on the coins, skidding along the mosaic or just running your hands through the coins – the kids were enthralled!
Greggs provided breakfast for the volunteers, Bearded Sailor provided fish and chips for lunch, Black Mouse wine and cheese emporium provided wine and nibbles (better check some of the counting) and Dominoes provided a pizza tea.
A whole community came together. We made it onto Radio Leeds Richard Stead Breakfast show with Oly Woodcock early in the morning and we were also featured on BBC Look North.. but best of all we raised £9,209.35!!!
A HUGE thank you to all of the volunteers who turned up to help count the coins.
Thank you to Pudsey Leisure Centre manager Jon and staff who were excellent hosts and couldn’t have supported us more, and thank you to the local community who really got on board with this amazing challenge and came out and massively supported us.
Hope to see you at the Christmas Lights on Sunday 2nd December from 3pm!