GoboPlus.com continues to operate in these difficult times with reduced staff numbers, but remains determined to support to its customers with a continued service of both custom and stock gobos. In recent weeks, the company has seen a huge increase in gobos celebrating the NHS. Goboplus.com responded by designing a range of NHS gobos for its website and has seen this move mushroom into an online campaign which is steadily growing week by week.
“We have received orders from across the UK from many customers who have been expressing their support on Thursday nights as they #clapforcarers in celebration of the commitment and strength being made by all front-line staff,” said GoboPlus.com’s Paul de Ville. “We have been sharing these pictures on social media in the hope that the message will spread far and wide to show how proud we are of all the hard-work going on across the UK, and the incredible risk that all front-line staff are taking at these times. We are overwhelmed by the number of photos and comments we have received and would like to thank all our customers for sharing these images with us, and for their ongoing support in these hard times.”
The NHS gobos have been spotted in a wide variety of locations across the country from churches and leisure centres to hotels and private houses. PA Entertainments lit up no less than five football clubs in South Yorkshire, including that of premiere league Sheffield United, while Maestra Group illuminated The Dorchester hotel in London where they also congratulated Captain Tom on his 100th birthday; churches across the land formed projection surfaces of thanks from St Andrews Church in Old Headington, Oxford, lit by Event Production Services, to Holcot Church in Northamptonshire honour of Mushroom Lighting, to Slains Belmont Street, Aberdeen using the skills of Andrew Lamond.
Oxygen Event Services in southwest London, Gary Cass Lighting in Aldershot and Gary Huggan of Equinox-Storm, Northamptonshire, were just some of those who lit up their own homes to thank the NHS. “We have been running a campaign on Instagram and Facebook for the last few weeks and I have been lighting my house in blue on Thursdays, and of course my family and I have been clapping at 8pm on the kerbside!” said Paul Edwards of Oxygen Event Services. “Our hope is that if just one key worker sees what we are doing in support, then they feel appreciated and motivated.”
Public buildings have also played their part with the Severn Valley Railway Station in Kidderminster brought to vivid life with messages of thanks by Betalite who also illuminated the head office of Andy Street, the Mayor of the Midlands, and hospitals across the region including Telford, Shrewsbury and Russell Hall. Perhaps one of the most ambitious projects came from JP Leisure in Devon who lit Damien Hirst’s famous statue of Verity on Ilfracombe’s harbour front for Florence Nightingale’s bicentenial on 12 May, and projected the NHS logo across the valley onto Lantern Hill.
Amid these celebrations, VE Day was marked by GLX Productions in Aylesbury whose Zak Nicholson explained: “We used the VE Day gobos to project onto Buckinghamshire Council’s civic buildings in Aylesbury, including The Gateway, Market Square Clock Tower, and also onto the church of St Mary The Virgin. We’d like to say thanks again to GoboPlus.com for the gobos, they added the finishing touch to the Red, White and Blue lighting theme.”
Andrew Lamond in Aberdeen helped sum up the spirit of the #NHSGobosTogether campaign as he reflects the plight of many freelance technicians in our industry, yet felt the urge to thank those in the front line for all their heroic efforts: “I plan to light up the church/bar opposite me on Slains Belmont Street with the NHS Thank You gobo each night from 9pm – 12am,” he said. “I’m a recent start-up freelance lighting op/programmer, but I feel, even though we as an industry have been hit excessively hard by all this, it’s a wonderful way to show our respect to those risking illness on the front-line. My respect also goes to those with the idea of the NHS gobo, its truly fantastic.”
The work that our front line workers are doing is invaluable, often at much personal cost to themselves and their families around them. The official #clapforcarers may have come to an end this week, but there are plenty of people who still intend to carrying showing their support for the UK’s key workers. GoboPlus.com will continue to support the NHS with their gobos of thanks and share the results on social media.
To see more and read the messages of support, please visit the GoboPlus.com Facebook page (www.facebook.com/goboplus/posts/2968592239890795) and show your support by sharing these posts. If you want to create your own tribute, you can contact any of the companies involved, or order your own gobos direct from GoboPlus.com at www.goboplus.com. Don’t forget to post the result!
