On March 28, 2007, UK artist Pollyanna Pickering and her daughter/manager Anna-Louise Pickering departed for Bhutan sketch and paint the rare flora and fauna of this largely undisturbed region of the Himalayas.
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Pollyanna PickeringHonMUniv NDD AFC SOFA Painter of the Living World
Pollyanna and her daughter Anna-Louise tried their hands at a brand new career in May– they spent a day alongside the fire-fighters at South Yorkshire Fire & Rescue’s Aston Park fire station.
They were the winning bidders for the fire-fighter experience day at an Age UK charity auction held at Aston Hall Hotel last autumn. Pollyanna was attending the gala dinner in her role as a Patron of Rotherham’s Gallery Town Art Project – and couldn’t resist bidding for this unique lot!
The fire-fighters were delighted to welcome the intrepid duo to the station. The day included a tour of the station and a look at the fire engines and all the equipment on board, along with trying on the fire-fighters uniform and wearing the breathing apparatus. They experienced the thrill of being raised up in the ‘cherry picker’ a hydraulic lifting platform, and even tried their hand at dismantling wrecked cars using the specialised lifting and spreading equipment. Aston Park is a full time station situated just off Junction 31 of the M1. The station area is mainly rural but does cover a number of industrial estates and some residential areas
Station Manager Paul Bragger said; “It was a pleasure to meet Pollyanna and Anna-Louise and show them around our station and give them an insight in to the day to day running of a fire station. Fire stations remain important parts of local communities so beyond our core emergency response and prevention work, it’s important to be able to give people an insight into our work.” Following her day with the fire-fighters, Pollyanna commented “It was absolutely fascinating to see behind the scenes at a working fire station and I was so impressed by the skill, bravery and dedication of the whole team.”
