Following the success of Pigs Gone Wild, Elmer’s Big Parade Suffolk and the Big Hoot Ipswich, St Elizabeth Hospice will be hosting a fourth art trail – called Hop to it! Suffolk 2025.
Get Involved
The trail will once again be hosted in Ipswich as well as, for the first time, in neighbouring satellite locations including Woodbridge, Felixstowe, Beccles and Lowestoft.
The hospice’s vital services are increasingly far-reaching and support communities throughout Suffolk. Hospice staff, like hares, swiftly travel across the local area, through towns, villages and the rural countryside, to deliver compassionate care, when it is needed most.
Through hosting Hop to It! Suffolk 2025, St Elizabeth Hospice aims to give local communities a bright, vibrant and family friendly event to look forward to and enjoy.
St Elizabeth Hospice
St Elizabeth Hospice improves life for people in East Suffolk, Great Yarmouth and Waveney living with a progressive or life-limiting illness. Our work is centred on an individual’s needs, which means specialist support, whenever and wherever it is needed, whether at home, in the community or at the hospice. Through medicine and therapy we ease pain; we give life purpose and make life liveable.
Each year it costs around £12 million to deliver all St Elizabeth Hospice care services and run the organisation, including support in Great Yarmouth and Waveney.
70% of hospice costs are raised each year through St Elizabeth Hospice’s retail shops, fundraising teams, donations, gifts and wills while 30% comes from services commissioned by the NHS.
Get Involved!
Fill out this form if you want to be a part of Hop to it! Suffolk 2025.
You can sign up to our mailing list to keep up to date with all the latest news, you can signal you interest in volunteering or to let us know if you are interested in bidding at auction to buy one of the hares!
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
Hopscotch Learning & Community Programme
Around 70 leveret stargazer hare sculptures will be decorated by local schools and community groups, and join our large hares on the Hoptoit! Suffolk 2025 art trail in summer 2025.
Once signed up, your school or community group will receive a leveret stargazer hare sculpture to design and paint. All the leverets will be exhibited during the trail in summer 2025, in selected shops and indoor venues, within Ipswich and the four satellite locations. The leverets will complement and add value to the main Hoptoit! trail, creating their own Hopscotch trail and showcasing the creativity of schools and groups within our community.
Once the trail has drawn to a close, the colourful sculptures will be returned to their creators as a permanent legacy.
Download the Hopscotch Learning & Community information pack to find out more, and sign up to get involved.
You can sign up now on the Hop to it! Hopscotch page. Complete the online form and pay £100 deposit to secure your sculpture.
It costs £750. This includes the £100 deposit. We ask you to fundraise £650 before the start of the trail in June 2025.
Once you complete the Hopscotch sign up form, this will automatically set up an Enthuse fundraising page for your school or group. You will receive a confirmation email with a link to your page, and also information about how to update, amend and begin fundraising for St Elizabeth Hospice.
Any problems please contact hoptoit@stelizabethhospice.org.uk
Log in to Enthuse via following the email confirmation you received when you signed up or by logging into enthuse via the web link https://stelizabethhospice.enthuse.com/profile – please select the three lines in the right hand corner, you may be asked for your order confirmation number so please have this to hand.
You will then be on your main fundraising page and there is the option to Edit Display Name, this is where you can then put the name of your school or group, you can also edit the profile picture and the blurb on the fundraising page.
We will let you know a collection date for November 2024, for you to come and collect your leveret hare sculpture. Anyone from your school or group can collect your sculpture.
Dates and locations will be confirmed.
The sculptures are 45cm high and 30cm wide, and weigh 10kgs. They can easily fit in the boot of a car.
We will let you know the completion date, for the end March 2025. You will be required to drop off your finished leveret to a drop off point. Dates and locations will be confirmed.
We are here to help you every step of the way!
You will be invited to attend a Hopscotch workshop to help with practical advice on how to design and paint your leveret along with lots of ideas to help you reach your fundraising target
You also will receive a Learning & Community Resources pack to help you engage your young people or community group with the exciting art trail, supporting St Elizabeth Hospice.
Greater Anglia are kindly sponsoring 10 free places on the program for schools or groups. The ballot will be open until Tuesday 5 November and we will announce those selected shortly afterwards.
To apply for a ballot place, you will need to meet one of the criteria below:
- The school or group has less than 50 pupils or members.
- The school or group work with underprivileged children or adults who would not be able to fundraise.
- The school or group works with children/adults with disabilities or have progressive illness or life-limiting conditions.
- The school or group have a high amount of cultures represented.
- The school/group are based in Beccles or Lowestoft.
Artists
There are two stages to the selection process;
Stage 1: the initial submissions will be shortlisted to around 120 designs. Artists will be notified if their designs have been shortlisted to stage 2 in October 2024.
Stage 2: Sculpture sponsors will attend a Matching Event, where they will select their chosen design to adorn their sculpture.
Successful Artists will be notified following the Matching Event, which will take place in November 2024.
If commissioned, you will be paid! There is an award of £900. Payment will be made on return of the completed sculpture and within 30 days of receipt of your invoice.
Some artists may choose to waiver this fee in support of St Elizabeth Hospice, the beneficiary charity of the Hoptoit! Suffolk 2025 art trail, but this is not an expectation.
The cost of all materials, is your responsibility, with the exception of the varnish. Completed sculpture will be professionally varnish after collection at our partner body spray workshop.
You can paint the hare sculptures in your own home or studio, please note the hare dimensions and allow for sufficient space. We will provide a free public painting space located in Ipswich Town Centre. Should you choose to paint your sculpture in your own home or studio, our volunteer drivers can help with local collection and delivery. Locations further afield, you will be responsible for associated collection and delivery costs, along with insurance. Please speak to our Art Coordinator for further information.
You will need to be available to paint a Hare for a period between, December 2024 and March 2025.
Following the trail event in the summer 2025, the Hare sculptures will be auctioned in September 2025 to raise money for St Elizabeth Hospice.
