Hooray for the #Snailway!

Remember the Snow Dog Trail from 2016?  Well we absolutely loved it and, when we heard that they were doing something similar again this year but with snails, we had to get involved. They carry their house on their back…makes sense to us! Everything about this project is right up our street! It’s not just that there will be 50 amazing looking huge snails dotted around the city, we also think the charity it supports, the Martlets Hospice, is a wonderful charity and the message behind the whole project is something we deeply believe in.  Due to all of this, (and this is SO cool) we have sponsored our very own giant snail!  There aren’t words for how excited we are about this.  We’ve chosen our artist based on a design that we think fits our brand and what we are about – can’t say too much yet, but it is a brilliant snail! Once we can reveal the location we will be finding ways to entice you to come and visit our wonderful snail!

About the Snailway

2016’s Snow Dog Trail was a roaring success with 44 full sized Snow Dogs designed by different artists and 22 Snow Dog puppies designed by school children.  After the hugely popular trail and the farewell event attended by 5000 people, the Dogs were sold off at auction raising a whooping £337,900 for the Martlets Hospice.  This year, it’s happening again but with snails.  The idea behind the snails is that the Martlets want people to slow down, take things at snail’s pace, to enjoy spending quality time with loved ones and not rushing about all the time.  They want to combine creativity and fun with promoting health and wellbeing.  As an estate and letting agent who try to do everything possible to take the stress of selling or renting out property away from our clients, we fully support this idea and hope we can help by giving people more time to relax and by supporting this project. We can’t wait to be involved in something so huge in the community – literally, the snails are big!

Who Are the Martlets Hospice Charity?

Opening in 1997 when three smaller hospices came together, the Martlets Hospice began offering care to terminally ill patients at their purpose-built centre and went on to offer an additional care at home service.  Generous donations from the public and businesses as well as grants from the NHS means they can provide an excellent level of care free of charge.  Over 500 volunteers help out at the Martlets, their events and in their charity shops each year and they provided care to nearly 4,000 people in their homes in 2017.  We think charities like this who give so much to the community in such a positive and inspiring way are so important to our city, and we’re absolutely delighted to be able to support them in this way.

What’s Happening Next?

Our snail is currently at the design phase – the snail has been shipped over to our artist for them to complete. She will then paint over the coming weeks while the organisers decide exactly where it will be placed.  School children will be working away at the same time to paint the 54 junior snails.  The snails are finally unleashed on the city from 15^th September to 18^th November.  During that time, people will be able to follow the #Snailway with maps or a phone app, take selfies with the snails and interact with the whole project through the app.  They’ll be a night time ‘Snailway Safari’ on 12^th October and the snails will finally be auctioned off on 4^th December to raise money for the Martlets. Any of this you want to be involved in – give us a shout!

We’re sure you’ve got the message that we’re so excited and happy to be part of this project and can’t wait to see our snail out and about with the others in September.  If you’d like to know about other projects we get involved with in the local community or need any help buying, selling, letting out or renting a property, please feel free to give us a call on 01273 917791.