This August I and thousands of others watched aghast as hoardes of people rampaged through the streets of London, seemingly hellbent on causing mayhem and destruction. It was a heartbreaking and disgraceful display of criminal damage, theft and violence that I sincerely wish never to have to see again.
However, from the destruction came something truly special, which reminded me just how much I love this little country and the people in it (in addition to the images of communities banding together to defend themselves and others from this yobbery, which was beautiful). I first noticed rumblings of a riot cleanup effort on Twitter, but as I was not in the capital I was unable to get involved physically in the immediate aftermath. Then I read a Tweet appeal from Zoe Drew, who asked creative practitioners to donate goods and/or services for a raffle in order to raise funds. It was decided that the money raised by the newly founded Riot Raffle would be donated to the Retail Trust, so that it might help tradespeople and small businesses worst affected by the rioters' trail of destruction.
I donated a couple of prints to the cause, and am pleased as punch to be able to inform that the raffle was a great success! You can read more about this effort at www.riotraffle.org. A blogpost from Becky, one of the winners who received a print from me, is also viewable by clicking here.
Lastly, to anyone who was in any way involved with the resistance effort, or with helping London to her feet afterwards- a huge thankyou and lots of love. If we all work together, we can keep our country wonderful.
TTFN
xx
