Harrogate shop launch t-shirt line to raise awareness of children's mental health
Tiger Fifty 7 have come up with a fashionable and practical way of raising funds and awareness
Last updated 28th Sep 2021
The owners of a Harrogate children's clothing store have come up with a fashionable and practical way of raising funds and awareness about children’s mental health.
Anna Lockwood and Georgie Simpson, who own Tiger Fifty 7 on Cold Bath Road, Harrogate, have designed and produced a colourful range of cotton t-shirts to support Harrogate-based mental health charity Wellspring Therapy and Training.
The pair have already raised £300 for the Starbeck-based charity through sales of their HG Kids tees, which are sized from age three up to XXL in adults.
The pair, who are mums to four young children between them, came up with the idea for the HG Kids tees at the height of the coronavirus pandemic last year.
"Everyone wants to back us with it and we just need to raise as much money as we can for Wellspring," said Anna.
"People love the design and the colours and they're just really happy we're doing this for Harrogate.
"We've even had people come in and buy shirts to send to relatives in America and Australia so it is great to know they'll be worn here in Harrogate and across the world."
Georgie, said: "The charity came to the shop and explained to us how they work and how they operate and what they told us was just draw dropping that children as young as three are really struggling so we wanted to do what we could to help.
"The charity are in demand and they haven't got the time to look after the amount of people so if we can raise money for more training or more sessions then that would be great.
“My own daughter has struggled as well, with anxiety and panic attacks, so one day I had a lightbulb moment and thought that we could, and should, do something to help by creating a t-shirt to raise awareness about the issue, and raise money to help as well."
Ten pounds from each t-shirt sold goes directly to the charity to support its counselling work with children and young people, who support youngsters from the age of four upwards.
The pair, who opened Tiger Fifty 7 in March 2019, sourced t-shirts, designed the HG KIDS logo, got them printed locally and have been stocking them on the shelves alongside their ranges of clothing, accessories, books, games and toys for the past few weeks.
Wellspring, set up in 2003, supported more than 700 children and young people last year, either through long-term counselling, group work for teenagers, support in schools or mental health training. The end of lockdown saw the number of referrals rise, leading to a temporary closure of waiting lists to prevent the charity becoming overwhelmed.
“The number one issue for children and young people is anxiety. We help young people to understand their responses to stressful events and assist them in developing good coping strategies through one-to-one counselling, group work and schools work. Our waiting lists are open again and we hope to be able to continue to meet the current level of demand,” said Sarah James, Therapeutic Lead at Wellspring.
The full range of the HG KIDS t-shirts can be found on the Tiger Fifty 7 website or drop into their store at 57 Cold Bath Road, Harrogate.
For more information about Wellspring and the services the charity offers, visit www.wellspringtherapy.co.uk