SUNDERLAND businesses have launched a last minute appeal to raise funds to ensure the city retains one of The Great North Snowdogs.
Throughout the two month trail visitors have flocked to Sunderland to visit the snowdogs which took up residency in and around the city centre.
All of the dogs – which are raising funds for St Oswald’s Hospice – are going under the hammer next week (6 December) and now a crowd funding campaign has been launched to keep one of the dogs as a permanent fixture in the city.
The hope is to buy either Snowdog Down The Rabbit Hole – with its Alice in Wonderland references – which was at Park Lane during the trail or Keel Square-based Tails of the Sea and find them a home.
All 61 dogs are being auctioned at a special event at Sage Gateshead, with the hope of raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for the St Oswald’s Children’s Service.
“Sunderland has seen thousands of visitors coming to the city from people who have been involved in the snowdogs trail,” said Gemma Dishman of Sunderland BID which is leading the initiative.
“And it would be a great shame for us not to keep a lasting reminder here, particularly one of the dogs that have proved so popular and have a strong historic and cultural link with Sunderland.”
Anyone who wants to support the fund raising efforts should go to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/SaveASunderlandSnowdog
More than 11,000 people have downloaded the Great North Snowdogs app – unlocking around 155,000 Snowdogs in the process – and at least 280k people have viewed, shared and interacted with the St Oswald’s Hospice social media sites each week.