Harrogate shops raise money with ‘Giraffle’ for food bank
by
Oct 21, 2020
The giraffe is on tour around the Harrogate district.

A group of independent Harrogate shops have joined forces to raise money for the town’s Trussell Trust food bank by organising a “Giraffle” .

Watermark Gallery, on Royal Parade, came up with the idea and worked with children’s illustrator Jane Ray to get it up and running.

Jane created a five-feet tall paper mache giraffe based on the main character of a book called “Zeraffa Girraffa” in 2014.

Just as the character of that book travelled far to her new home in Paris, Zeraffa is travelling around the Harrogate district in October and November.



So far she has been seen in the windows of Catherine Smith Vintage, Bespoke Eyewear and Westmorland Sheepskins.

The next stop will be the Little Ripon Bookshop. When her tour comes to an end, Zeraffa will be raffled off to one lucky winner. The tickets will be drawn on December 18.

Tickets to enter the raffle are £5 and are available from Watermark Gallery. A total of 100 tickets have been sold so far and another 100 are on sale.

Liz Hawkes, owner of the Watermark Gallery, hopes that the “Giraffle” will raise £1,000 for charity. She said:

“Zeraffa was a real talking point in the window of our gallery, and we had countless enquiries about buying her. I think people saw her as a ray of sunshine during a somewhat challenging time.

“This gave us the idea of creating an ongoing artwork initiative to unite local independent retailers as well as raising money for a great local cause.”