A new Hero for Elmer Trail

Hero has been designed and painted by experienced trail artist, Mik Richardson, who has already produced Elmer Armstrong, Castle on the Hill and Earnest Edmund for the parade. Hero represents our real life super heroes—the emergency services. He features the fire service, the paramedics and the air ambulance.

He was created as a backup sculpture, ready to jump to the rescue should any of the other Elmers get into trouble and need any help during their parade. Thankfully this hasn’t been needed and so we are now able to reveal him to the public.

Yesterday proved the perfect opportunity to introduce this loveable new character at Ipswich Regent, which proudly hosted The Elmer Show, celebrating Elmer the Patchwork Elephant and his 30th birthday.

Norman Lloyd, Campaign Manager for Elmer’s Big Parade Suffolk, said:

“We really love Hero and are sure he is going to be a hit with the public. We are of course very grateful that we haven’t needed him before now but we are keen to show him off as much as possible over the next few weeks! Hero is a wonderful design and very skilfully painted so we hope he will prove really popular at the auction.”

Hero will be out and about around Ipswich until the end of the trail. You might spot him at Elmer HQ in Ipswich Town Hall, or possibly spending some time with one of our partners or sponsors; or perhaps you’ll find him in the town centre, or spy him cruising round town on the back of the Elmer pick up. Keep your eyes peeled, you just never know where he might pop up next!

Once the trail has ended, Hero will join all the other sculptures to enjoy one last public parade at Ipswich Corn Exchange and Town Hall for our farewell event, Elmer Packs His Trunk. Tickets for this in demand event are on sale now via the Ipswich Regent and Corn Exchange Box Office.

At the end of the trail, Hero will be sold at our grand auction along with all the other large sculptures, raising much needed funds for St Elizabeth Hospice.

Elmer’s Big Parade Suffolk is St Elizabeth Hospice’s latest art trail, organised in partnership with Wild in Art and Andersen Press. The sculptures are out on parade until Saturday 7 September 2019. It follows the successful ‘Pigs Gone Wild’ art trail in 2016, which attracted around 250,000 visitors to Ipswich and boosted the local economy by an estimated £1 million. It raised £200,000 for the hospice – enough to fund one week’s care.