It’s going to be a fabulously fun and colourful summer in Chichester and Arundel as 30 big and 30 small owl sculptures swoop into town, providing a free day out for the entire family.
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00:00Good afternoon, my name is Phil Hewitt, Group Arts Editor at Sussex Newspapers, and there's
00:06something incredibly special, truly exciting and wonderfully colourful that is going to
00:10be happening in Arundel in Chichester this summer from July the 10th. It's going to be
00:15the Big Hoot, 30 large, beautifully painted, beautifully decorated owls and 30 smaller
00:22ones and it's all in aimed at Chestnut Tree House. Now Becky Jupp is Chief Operating Officer
00:28at Chestnut Tree House. This is going to be fantastic isn't it? It's going to be so wonderfully
00:32colourful and special and exciting isn't it? Oh it's going to be amazing, we can't wait.
00:38We are so excited that as you said from the 10th of July there are going to be 30 owls
00:44swooping in to Chichester and Arundel to really brighten up the streets and give families
00:50and the public something to go and visit over the summer holidays. It's going to be very
00:55special. And in both locations you can download an app or get a trail map and do the lot in
01:01one go can't you? And just tick them off, make sure you can get started. Yeah, absolutely.
01:06So you can walk around the trails, as you said there'll be a map that you can pick up,
01:10there'll be an app that you can download and you can go and explore both towns and cities
01:16and go and find the owls. They will be all over the place, some will be very obvious
01:20to find, others will be hidden away a little bit more, but you can go around and collect
01:25them all. So we challenge you to go and find all 30 of them.
01:28That sounds fantastic. Now it's an established formula isn't it? The artists and the organisation
01:34behind it and the charity partner. But you've chosen the animal, you've chosen the owl,
01:39which has significance doesn't it for Chestnut Tree House? What's the significance behind
01:44the owl?
01:46So Chestnut Tree House is the children's hospice for West and East Sussex and South East Hampshire
01:51and it is based in a beautiful piece of countryside just outside of Arandor and part of the grounds
01:59that it's on is a very special woodland walk for us. So we have a woodland walk that the
02:04children and the young people can come and visit. It's fully accessible and the kids
02:09love being in the woods. They love playing in the mud kitchen, talking about the fairies,
02:14the squirrels and the woodland creatures that are around. We very often have deer in
02:21the gardens and quite often owls. So we decided to pick an owl for that particular reason
02:26so that actually we can really talk to the children and young people that we look after
02:32about what we're doing and they can understand why we picked the owl and hopefully we'll
02:36end up with our very own owl in the grounds that they can look at.
02:39It's going to be fabulous. I remember seeing the Winchester and Southampton Rabbits, I
02:44think it was the year before last, and they were so spectacular. But it's worth stressing
02:48that there is a really serious, really important purpose behind all this, isn't it? And you
02:53were talking about a real crisis in terms of fundraising for hospices generally. Tell
02:58me more.
02:59Yeah, so the whole hospice sector is unfortunately facing a little bit of a funding crisis at
03:04the moment. The children's hospice is no different from the adults' hospices in terms
03:10of the amounts of money it needs to raise. So it costs us around £5 million a year to
03:15run Chestnut Tree House and the services that we provide for around 250 families across
03:22the region is all provided for free. But only 17% of that £5 million comes from the government.
03:28So it's barely anything. The rest of the money we need to raise and we need to raise it from
03:34public donations, from help from our corporate partners, from our major donors. So it's a
03:40huge amount of money that the team is...
03:42And that must be a massive pressure on a daily, weekly, monthly basis to know that you've
03:47got to come up with this amount.
03:49Yes, it's a huge pressure. And particularly over the last couple of years, you know, we've
03:54come out of COVID where a lot of things have to be cancelled and moved and shops closed
03:59and coming out the back of that. And we've walked straight into an economic crisis where
04:03people are really feeling the cost of living and just simply don't have the money to give
04:08as they used to. So things like the big hoops and opportunities to try something different
04:13are so, so important because we desperately want to keep on providing the care that we
04:17are currently giving. But yeah, it is becoming an increasing challenge to find that money.
04:23So there's pressure on this, isn't there? But all the elements are there for a spectacular
04:28success, aren't there?
04:29Oh, absolutely.
04:31Possibly if it goes well, you're thinking perhaps six figures, if it goes really, really
04:35well.
04:36We hope so, yeah. We hope that we can raise as much money as possible. So at the end of
04:42the trail, there's going to be a farewell weekend on the 13th to the 15th of September.
04:47So that's taking place in Arundel. So that is your opportunity to go and buy a ticket
04:51to see all the owls stood together in the same place so you can see them all collectively.
04:56And then a couple of weeks later, we're going to be auctioning them off. So that is the
04:59opportunity for people to hopefully pay lots and lots of money for a unique sculpture that
05:05has been decorated by one of our artists. And then you can take it home and put it in
05:11your garden if you so wish.
05:12Sounds fantastic. And the really exciting thing is these owls are going to appear, well,
05:17overnight, aren't they? 9th, 10th day?
05:20Yes, a team of people ready to go out in the evening after dark to start placing the owls
05:29where they need to go. So, yes, we will all wake up on the 10th of July and find out where
05:34they all are. I don't even know where they are. The team haven't told me. So I will be
05:37going out.
05:38You will download your app, will you?
05:39I will do. Yes, absolutely.
05:41I bet you can't wait.
05:43I can't wait, no. And I'm really excited to take the family to go and have a look at
05:49them all.
05:50Fantastic. Well, really lovely to speak to you, Becky. Good luck with it. It's going
05:54to be fabulous, it really will.
05:55Thanks.
05:56Thank you.
05:59Bye.
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