Marching orders: Oor Wullie fans s walk enough to burn off 400 0 plates of mince e and tatties for kids’ charities
Participants rack up four million ste eps
The Proclaimers sang about walking 500 miles and then 500 more.
But participants of the Oor Wullie Big Bucket Trail have gone twice as far in only three weeks.
Figures show those visiting the 200 life- sized Oor Wullie sculptures across the country have taken a whopping 4,000,000 steps.
The Big Bucket Trail app has been counting the distance travelled by those taking part – and they’ve travelled a whopping 2,000 miles in 20 days.
Two hundred Oor Wullie sculptures have been placed on the streets of Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Inverness to raise money for Scotland’s children’s hospital charities.
Lasting until September, the trail is expected to attract more than one million people who are criss-crossing the country to spot all the sculptures.
The money raised is going to Edinburgh Children’s Hospital Charity, The ARCHIE Foundation and Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity.
The full-sized Wu l lie sculptures – located in local libraries, art galleries, shopping centres, workplaces, sports centres and public spaces – have been visited 350,000 times.
It takes 200,000 calories to walk the 2,000 miles logged by those taking part in the Bucket Trail.
That’s the equivalent of 1,350 omelettes or 400 plates of mince and tatties.
According to the Big Bucket Trail app, the most popular sculpture chosen by voters is Oor Willie – a statue based on
Aberdeen footballing legend Willie Miller, located at the Bon Accord Centre in the city.
The most- visited Wullie is Oor Rod, based on rock star Rod Stewart – which is located i n Glasgow ’s Buchanan Street.
Hot on his heels is Oor Billie – the sculpture inspired by Glasgow comedy hero Billy Connolly.
More than 26,000 people have downloaded the Oor Wullie Big Bucket Trail app in the hunt to visit all the sculptures before September.
And more than 7,000 selfies of Wullie sculptures have been snapped across the country, with 13,000 people signing up to the Facebook page too.
Speaking on behalf of the charities involved with the trail, Shona Cardle, chief executive of Glasgow Children’s Hosp pital Charity, said: “We’re absolutely thrilled that Oor r Wullie’s Big Bucket Trail has been visited by so many peop ple in its first few weeks.
“It is already y proving to be one of them most popular attractions in t the country, and has been delighting locals and visitor rs alike.
“The trail is raisds ing vital fund and awareness for Scotland’s children’ s hospital chari- ties–Glasgow Children’ s Hospital Charit ty, the ARCHIE Foundation , and Edinburgh Children’ s Hospital Char rity – and we hope that the many
thousands of people who have enjoyed the trail will show their support for the babies, children and young people in hospital by fund- raising or making a donation.”
Those taking part in the trail will be able to enjoy Wullie’s adventures from this week – with the help of The Book Fairies group.
The group encourage people to read by leaving books in locations for people to take and pass on – and now they’re getting involved in the Big Bucket Trail.
They’re leaving 200 copies of Oor Wullie annuals at sculptures across the country for lucky people to discover.
“These annuals have been donated to The Book Fairies by all three of the children’s charities involved in the project,” explained Kirsteen Young, of The Book Fairies.
“These were originally gifted to the charities by DC Thomson. Once I had the idea in my head, to leave copies of Oor Wullie along the trail, I emailed everybody with a connection to Oor Wullie about my plan.
“We have already started hiding books in Glasgow and we’re all set to start dropping books along the rest of the trail.”
The Book Fairies aim to encourage others to read and were delighted to get involved with the campaign.
“People like reading and sharing, and everyone loves a nice surprise,” added K irsteen. “These things come together with The Book Fairies – giving people a chance to pop a sticker and some ribbon on a book, make it a little surprise gift for someone, and leave it somewhere to be discovered!
“The Book Fairies can be anywhere, and could be anyone you know. We are very excited to be sharing books worldwide.”