CALLING all photographers, painters and sketchers.
Huddersfield charity the Whiteknights Emergency Voluntary Service, is asking for donations of artworks in a bid to raise funds to continue their work.
The charity provides out-of-hours medical services to the NHS and is run completely by volunteers who take medical supplies between hospitals and medical centres and laboratories on motorbikes at night.
In order to continue their service they need to raise £20,000 annually and have decided to run an online art sale.
Anybody with a hint of artistic talent is asked to upload their images online in the hope that they can be reproduced as posters or postcards and sold in aid of the charity. Whiteknights dispatch manager Alan Bonomi said: “This is a marvellous opportunity for members of the public to help raise vital funds for a charity organisation that provides a much needed service to the NHS.
“We aim to get anybody involved, not just artists. If somebody has taken a photograph of a football match or of a race – or even has a fantastic holiday snap – they can upload it via the website www.whiteknights.org.uk.
“We will ask the donor to sign a release granting Whiteknights the right to reproduce the piece but the original would remain with the owner, unless they wish to donate it to the charity.
“Hayley Sutcliffe, a design crafts student has fully donated The Lion and The Lamb, an acrylic on wood piece of art, which will also feature at the new Charis Bible College in Dewsbury.
“The only art that we cannot accept is sculptures, but anything else is very welcome.’’
He added: “A celebrity donating an autographed piece would be very welcome, of course, but we are looking for pictures that will catch the eye and warm the heart.’’
The Whiteknights was founded by Vic Siswick, a recovering cancer patient who wanted to give something back after watching doctors fight to save the life of a man in the next hospital bed.
Alan continued: “If your loved one is critically ill, in intensive care or your doctor needs an urgent blood test carrying out and the nearest laboratory is 40 miles away, Whiteknight volunteers provide that courier service.
“Each year our riders travel thousands of miles. Many are on urgent time-sensitive calls which may help to save a life, but like all organisations the provision of the service costs thousands each year.
“All the bikers go through intense training and they give up their time for free to get on a bike on a cold, wet, winter’s night.
“All money raised from the art sale will go to the maintenance of the bikes.”
