Meet Addie
A Jumbo-Sized Art Adventure is Coming to Leicester!
Get ready for an unforgettable celebration of creativity as Leicester welcomes a spectacular new public art trail that’s sure to make a huge impact!
Building on the phenomenal success of the 2021 Rocket Round Leicester trail, LOROS has once again partnered with Wild in Art to bring a larger-than-life experience to the city.
The Bodie Hodges Foundation are thrilled to be one of trails Community Learning Programme partners!
From 14th July to 21st September 2025, Leicester’s streets, parks, and open spaces will come alive with a herd of magnificent elephant sculptures which will #StompRoundLeicester
Addie is grieving, he feels sad because his sibling has died. He feels different to his friends, confused and anxious. He feels silenced because he does not want to upset others or get upset himself. His grief for his sibling is the elephant in the room.
You will see his bright vibrant colours but come closer and explore how he really feels.
Addie is trying to do normal things, like go to school, meet friends and have fun but he has all these feelings inside and is trying to keep them to himself.
Talking to someone about all these feelings helps children and young people understand that the elephant in the room is just how others treat your grief but your grief is love.
Talk to Addie about how you feel and help us address the elephant in the room. #AddieTheElephant
How we designed our elephant
We asked bereaved children and young people to design an elephant to show us what it feels like to grieve for their sibling, we then used their words and symbols to create the design.
The team at Juice then looked at all the designs our bereaved siblings created and began to distil the themes and ideas down into a number of approaches. Four concepts were presented us, one of which was around the idea of using stamps.
Looking at stamp collections, Juice discovered an amazing display of colourful and energetic imagery. In order to capture this for the elephant they explored how we apply custom stamps of the children’s designs layer by layer to cover the elephant.
“Addie the elephant is profound and powerful, and I am so thankful to all of our children and young people for sharing what it feels like to be a bereaved sibling with us. It is heart-breaking to think that all these amazing siblings are going to school every day yet carrying all these emotions and feelings around with them 24/7. I was so moved by the way they have been able to articulate their grief, and humbled because as an adult I felt the same way as they do when Bodie died.
I hope that in sharing Addie the elephant we can educate more people and get more support for children and young people in school and through our bereavement counselling sessions and peer support groups. Huge thanks to the team at ER Recruitment and Juice for partnering with us and helping us create Addie the elephant.”
Donna Hodges
CEO, The Bodie Hodges Foundation
Partners
With thanks to our partners ER Recruitment and Juice Creative Design Ltd for supporting our baby elephant project!
We have loved working with these two amazing businesses on such an important project.
“At ER Recruitment, we believe in the power of community and conversation, especially around topics that are difficult to talk about.
“We can’t begin to imagine the loss these families have experienced, but by partnering with the Bodie Hodges Foundation and Juice Creative for the #StompRoundLeicester campaign, we hope to help bereaved children feel seen, heard, and supported.
We’re incredibly proud to be a part of this project & hope Addie encourages more open conversations about loss, love, and remembrance.”
Eileen Perry MBE DL
Managing Director, ER Recruitment
“I was truly honoured to be asked to be involved with the Bodie Hodges Foundation and their campaign, helping to create their baby elephant and address the elephant in the room for other siblings and families.
Having lost my own brother several years ago, I understand the deep and lasting impact of sibling grief—constantly carrying that feeling of why them? Being able to support other siblings and families, even in a small way, means so much to me personally.
There isn’t a week that goes by where I don’t wish I could just sit and have a chat with him. I feel incredibly blessed to be part of the Bodie Hodges Foundation—being involved has given something back to me to help widen there reach to support other families at difficult times.”
Nick Taylor
Managing Director, Juice Creative Design Ltd
Elephant send-off party!
Loros have created a great opportunity for artists, school and not for profits to be creative and join in with a colourful, feel good event during the summer.
We brought our families together to formally meet Addie the elephant before he set off on the Stomp around Leicester.
Bringing our families together for our elephant themed send off party was amazing. The children got their first glimpse of Addie he headed off to Loros to get ready to be part of the herd. All the young people were keen to find out how their designs had been used on Addie!
It was emotional unveiling our elephant and sharing it with families. The children were proud of their contributions, made new friends and ate lots of celebratory cake. It was great that Nick Taylor and the team from Juice as well as Scarlett Canavan from ER Recruitment could join us too.
Help to fund our Bereavement Educator Role
We need to raise £15,000 to pilot a 12 month Bereavement Educator role which will work with schools to support children and young people as they grieve.
Through our work, we’ve seen how schools struggle to support bereaved siblings – not through lack of compassion, but because they simply don’t have the training or experience to navigate such delicate situations.
Your support will help us to launch a new service for schools, which will provide early intervention training for staff, equipping teachers with emotional resilience and coping strategies.
We will also be able to offer follow-up therapeutic support for grieving students.
