ELLESMERE Sculpture Initiative held a public art event in memory of Ellesmere-born Save the Children founder Eglantyne Jebb.

The event, held at OurSpace on Saturday, was organised to commemorate the centenary of Save the Children.

Children attended a messy art-filled day where they were asked several questions related to the Save the Children cause before drawing, painting and crafting their answers.

The 18-month project by the sculpture group aims to collect ideas of youngsters which will eventually feed into the installation of a sculpture in Cremorne Gardens as part of the sculpture trail.

It was the first public event of its kind organised by the group, after holding similar events in schools across the area.

Ellesmere Sculpture Group secretary Claire Cartlidge said she was pleased with the response it got.

“There was a good turnout today and it seems like everyone enjoyed it,” she said.

“We’ve been able to get the parents involved as well – it has been very messy, especially with the foot and hand printing going on.

“We’ve been asking the younger children questions with regards to Save the Children.

“It’s focused on refugees so we have asked things such as ‘what would you take with you if you had to leave home?’ and then they’ve answered by drawing pictures of what they would take.

“We’ve also looked at what they would miss from home – so we’ve come up with some nice ideas already here, especially considering this is the first public event of this kind which we’ve done.

“Hopefully there will be more similar events after this one. We’re hoping to put an advert out to get an artist to do the installation once we’re at that stage.”

Eventually a sculpture designed with the children’s responses in mind will be put in place by the Mere in order to commemorate the foundation which started in 1919.

Claire added: “What we want to do is make sure people remember Eglantyne Jebb because she was a pioneer for this organisation.

“She was ahead of her time – considering it was 1919. She set it u to help out the children who were starving in Europe. There was a lot of antagonism about that at the time, so much so that she got arrested.

“She thought Save the Children would do their work then and that would be it – but it’s still going now, there are still children starving in the world today.”