Arbroath folk eye Oor Wullie statue for town

AUCTION: Crowdfunding campaign by local nurse to raise money for sculpture

People in Arbroath are planning to come together to bid for an Oor Wullie statue at auction next month.

The Oor Wullie Bucket Trail in Dundee and parts of Angus has been incredibly popular, with visitors flocking to each statue.

Now a campaign has been formed to raise funds to try to buy one of the 5ft sculptures for Arbroath.

The idea started in a community discussion online and the project has been taken on by Arbroath nurse Gemma Rice.

She has set up a Facebook page for the campaign and is planning to talk to council officials on Monday about setting up a crowdfunding page.

Gemma said she had been overwhelmed at the response from the community so far.

She said: “It’s early days but there are a lot of people who’d like to be involved. It seems to be encouraging a bit of community spirit.

“A lot of people are offering help and we are going to contact the schools and see if they want to be involved.”

Gemma hopes the crowdfunding page will be established at the start of next week through which people could start to make donations.

She reckons backers will need to raise around £6,000 to be in with a chance when the bidding takes place at Dundee Rep on September 13 to raise funds for the Archie Foundation.

Gemma, 33, thinks the lifeboat statue Oor Lifesaver, which is on show in Broughty Ferry, might be the best one for the Angus town.

She added: “The lifeboat one would seem to make sense since Arbroath has the history of being a fishing community.

“It’s hard to know how much they will sell for since there are no start prices on any of them.

“I’ve spoken to the people behind the Oor Wullie Bucket Trail and they have confirmed they would be happy to wait for a delayed payment as it would take a couple of days for the crowdfunding money to be released.”

A location for the statue has still to be confirmed, with the possibility it might be situated at the town’s Signal Tower Museum.

Gemma said she is hoping that other people will get involved in the campaign and help with some of the fundraising.

Ironically, the Arbroath mum hasn’t been doing the bucket trail herself as her 20-month-old son Leo is “terrified” of the statues.

She said: “All my friends who have kids have been doing the trail and I’ve enjoyed looking at photos of them.

“If we can bring a little bit of the trail to Arbroath, it would be quite an achievement.”

The community have their sights set on the statue at Broughty Ferry Harbour.