WE’VE all heard of Rudolph the rednosed reindeer and his shiny nose, but did you know of Bertie the blue nose reindeer and his mince-pie dispensing bottom?
Bertie was created by Kate Barrington from Age UK to for the Local Charities Day event which took place on December 16 in Taunton.
Kate wanted to raise awareness of the fact that each winter, an old person dies every seven minutes because of the cold.
The larger than life-sized paper mache creature sends mince pies flying out of his rear when you push down on his ears.
After the day, Bertie was put on eBay to raise funds for Age UK – and he ended up making an extra special TV appearance.
Ms Barrington said: “During the event, we celebrated the work we do and we wanted to raise awareness of the issue of older people staying warm during the winter months – hence Bertie’s blue nose.
“We gave out thermometers and held a collection to support our work.
“People responded really well to Bertie, I think there was a lot of curiosity about him in the town.
“He also made an appearance on BBC’s Spotlight which had the presenters in stitches. The clip has had more than 100,000 views.
“After the Local Charities Day, we put Bertie up for sale on eBay.
“We had a bid for £250 and it wasn’t until later we found out the bid was from the producer at Spotlight.”
You can see Bertie at tinyurl.com/ bertiethereindeer
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