Today started of very well indeed as we received our two first donations of red clothing. Both items were jackets and both were donated by woman. Thank you very much, and we hope our collection continues to grow!
We had lots of interest all through the day, and lots of people eager to be involved. Many are coming back over the next week to take part. We also had our youngest participant at 10 months old take part today. Baby Dylan and his mum Lucy looked lovely as they set off out of the St. Johns centre all in red, including the pushchair with its own red scarf. They made their merry way through the market and across town, Dylan leaning forward, smiling and waving at the slightly bemused spectators. He thoroughly enjoyed his experience, as did Lucy. Lucy was very surprised about how wearing the red clothes gave her an instant confidence boost and how she enjoyed the attention much more than she’d anticipated.
Well, we’ve finally settled down in our shop in St John’s Centre. Last week was extremely busy, cleaning, ironing and hanging our lovely red clothes. We did think that it might prove slightly intimidating being in the shop window amongst our red things, but actually it was quite exciting and we have definitely taken on a new persona when dressed in red and feel like we are actually on stage acting, especially when we have our music playing. When we thought about how our first week would go, we imagined that the only people who dressed in red would be our friends or family. In the event all those who where supposed to come along had valid excuses why they couldn’t dress up? The brilliant thing was we managed to inspire 13 complete strangers to engage with the red project and become our first walkers. On Saturday a lovely bloke called Danny Johnson, from Liverpool, who willingly dressed in red and was the first man to participate with his girlfriend Danni. They were both great company and have promised to come back with Ben and more of their friends from Liverpool. We hope so. Today, Monday, we have had lots of people in the shop chatting and asking about the project but never quite managed to get a willing participant. Not to worry though as at this moment the washing machine’s busy dying children’s clothes red, as a lovely family have bought clothes especially for their two gorgeous boys to wear on Saturday next, so they will be our first whole family and we can’t wait.
We started off the day by cleaning the windows. The pound shop next door but one said that we could borrow their step ladders for the duration of our project. Thank you pound shop!
We are open to the public now and ready to go. We began by testing the circular route that we decided on. En route, each participant will sit down to take tea or coffee at ‘Go Fresh’, a juice/coffee kiosk situated on the square in front of the Harris Museum and Art Gallery, where they will be photographed by volunteers. Many thanks to Kathryn Wheatly for photographing us today. On re-entering the shop they will fill in a short questionnaire to record their experience, and a short video recording will be made. Any comments gathered along the way, we intend to write on our blackboards in the shop.
We have our first participants ready to go and are excited to see what tomorrow brings!
We have worked our socks off for the past two days. Phew!! Today we have had lots of spectators admiring our growing display of red clothes and accessories. In fact, one lady knocked on the glass door repeatedly and was determined to purchase our wears. We are getting to know our fellow retailers and shoppers and we are sensing a feeling of acceptance. Hopefully, as from Thursday we are open to the public and we will be able to engage them in our project.
