Calpe House set for Christmas bauble competition

The Calpe House Trust has launched a new competition to design a Christmas bauble.

The competition is the brainchild of long-time sponsor David Frier, owner of local firm Capital Trustees.

The competition is open to all students in full time education on the Rock, regardless of age, and the trust welcomes entries from nursery to Gibraltar University students.

The Calpe House Christmas Bauble competition will start next Monday and will run for two weeks.

“We [Calpe House Trust and Mr Frier] thought we would get the community involved, that is, the children,” said Deborah Huxley from the Trust.

“David came to me with the idea of a Christmas bauble so we sat down and did some thinking.”

“It has been many weeks and months in the process, we have been bouncing balls everywhere and checking for the health and safety of them including fire and toxicity of paint,” she added.

Only one design will win and that design will be used on 750 baubles, which will be available for sale in a presentation box in time for Christmas. It is expected that each bauble will cost £10 and all proceeds will go directly to the Calpe House Trust.

“It is a limited edition and hopefully if it goes well we will do it again next year,” said Ms Huxley.

“Hopefully year after year the bauble will hang on somebodies tree,” she added.

The design has to incorporate Gibraltar, Calpe House and Christmas.

All designs submitted will be exhibited in Gibraltar at a venue that has yet to be arranged.

Mr Frier and his friend Tim Benson have on other occasions raised money for Calpe House and other worthy causes, he calls this competition an, “extension of what we are already doing” and this time involves the Capital Trustees.

“Gibraltar has been a very good place for myself and my family and a place to have a business and I wanted to contribute something and have social responsibility,” he said.

All the schools in Gibraltar have been issued with a template and given clear instructions on what to use and how to design the bauble on a A3 sheet. This is necessary to endure that the design will fit correctly on the bauble.

“All going well, we have Colourworks helping on the design work helping with the digital enhancement of it so it is suitable for printing, we will run the competition again next year,” said Mr Frier.

Olga Zammit is a director of the Calpe House and as a former teacher welcomes the competition.

“I think it is a terrific idea that David has had because there is so much creativity and artistry in Gibraltar,” she said.

“With art work the children always respond enormously and it is aimed at all ages, not just Government schools but private ones as well as long as you are in full time education.”

“It’s a terrific thing because it involves them and they will have a sense of ‘ahh my design won’, so it is very exciting for the children,” she added.

She also said that the Trust thinks that this type of fundraising event is wonderful and notes that those contributing will be either born on the Rock or have moved to Gibraltar and are now going to school here and believes that it is very inclusive as a result.