The story of the day was kindly written up by one of our biggest Foundation supporters - Clive Hollingshead, Senior Application Instructor... Thank You... Here is his story:
A new email, you can tell by the noise Outlook makes when one arrives - its from Philip Kenley, always worth a look. This one is no odder than normal, that is to say no odder than any other from the Foundation.
Gist of the request - have a few elephants, they need to be painted, going to take 2 days and he has booked the lock-up - oh and as inducement we will all get a t-shirt, all in aid of the Elephant Family.
With a brief like that, how can anybody refuse?
And so it as that on Friday April 23rd, over 60 brave souls put lives into their hands and entered the Access Self Storage unit in Wandsworth (London) to investigate and learn about the activities of the Asian Elephant and what we could do to protect them. The answer, cover them in anti-graffiti paint.
In the past 100 years, the elephant population in Asia has shrunk by 90%. In another 30 years, it could easily vanish altogether. The Elephant Family is a not for profit organisation that was created to raise awareness of the plight of the Asian Elephant and to raise funds to assist with their continuing survival. Through the Foundation Salesforce.com had become a major supporter of one of the major fundraising activities, the Elephant Parade, where 260 brightly painted baby elephants were to be displayed (and eventually sold) all over the centre of London. We had one of our own, Claudia and many folks had their pictures taken next to her (including most of HR in quite shocking poses it has to be said.)
Friday’s activity was simple.
- Find an elephant (no difficult, there were all over the place, just standing or sitting there)
- Wash your elephant to remove all traces of dust, flaking skin, food, etc.
- Dry your elephant and buff to a high shine
- Paint your elephant with the anti-graffiti paint
Steps 1-3 were easy enough. Step 4 not so. The paint (not really paint but a translucent vinyl chemical) needed to be mixed and the used in a strict time period as it went ‘off’ quite quickly. It was also very important to keep an even covering so as not to hide some of the beautiful features of these majestic beasts - and they were majestic. And did I mention that the chemical gave off quite powerful fumes? By the end of the day it seemed the elephants were multiplying and their colours getting more exotic. We all understood where Dumbo was getting his visions from.
With all elephants coated once and the covering dry it was time to repeat the exercise. And the smell got worse. Just before we finished more elephants arrived - those representing the 3 main political parties, painted in boxing gloves and shorts. It seemed apt somehow
Day 1 ended with the volunteers replacing one mind altering chemical for another with a swift drink in the local watering hole across the road.
Day 2 started with a different group of volunteers, as families arrived to paint the 2nd layer of protection. This time we painted what appeared to be cow gum over these wonderful beasts (the elephants not the marketing team)
This group of enthusiasts worked just as hard (if not harder) in the now very warm lockup, with the necessary breaks for food, fluid and fotos.
But the stars of the 2 days were the elephants.
This was not the final activity from our part. The elephants needed to be bolted to plinths and many salesforce folk turned up to assist and later they were paraded around London to the joy and delight of workers and tourists alike. Indeed, Claudia was spotted at several London main line rail terminus.
Over £4 million was raised in the sale of the elephants - see the link below for more information and pictures.
http://www.elephantfamily.org/how-can-you-help/events/elephant-parade-london-2010/
