Member Article

New year, new look for North East children’s charity

Regional charity, Children North East, has welcomed in 2019 with a brand new look.

A new, modern logo featuring the strapline, Because Growing Up Can Be Hard, has been designed to better encapsulate the purpose of Children North East whose mission is that every child in the region grows up to be healthy and happy.

The image of the little girl in the logo was originally designed by Westerhope, Newcastle resident, Lorraine Hindson back in the 1980s. She was just six years of age when she scooped first prize in an art competition with her painting of a child at the beach.

Three decades on, Lorraine, now 37, was delighted to learn that the character she drew, subsequently named ‘Hope’ by Children North East, remains an integral part of the charity’s new branding by Newcastle-based Everything design agency.

Lorraine, who has sons aged ten and 16, said: “I can actually remember doing the picture for the competition. I was brought up in Blaydon and the teachers at Winlaton Park Infant School asked us to draw something we’d done on our six week holidays.

“I’d been to the seaside at Whitley Bay or Tynemouth so I drew a picture of myself on the beach.

“I feel quite honoured that my drawing is still a part of the new logo and I like the words – ‘Because Growing Up Can Be Hard’ because it’s something anyone can relate to. Even for those who are relatively well-off and have everything they want, growing up can still be a hard time and it’s great that Children North East is there for when the going gets tough.”

Chief Executive of Children North East, Jeremy Cripps, added: “I was delighted to meet Lorraine when she visited our head office in January. In 1987 Lorraine entered a competition to paint a logo for the newly renamed charity Children North East.

“Her entry won for which she received £50 that she shared with her sister and spent on her first holiday abroad. Her school also received a prize of art and craft materials. It was lovely to be able to show Lorraine her original painting proudly displayed in our head office - and of course still essential to our identity and logo.

“Lorraine was pleased to know the girl in the picture has a name, ‘Hope’ which she thought was very suitable as Children North East offers hope to so many babies, children and young people across our region.”

Last year the charity made a positive difference to the lives of more than 3,580 children and young people through the 34 services it provides from Northumberland in the North down to Teesside in the South. It also helped create a level playing field for more than 21,000 school children through the charity’s Poverty Proofing the School Day initiative.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by pauline holt .