TV actor urges us to recycle our Christmas cards
Casualty actor Colin Wells has two important and very personal reasons to support the Woodland Trust’s 2010 Christmas Card Recycling Scheme – his children.
Colin and his actress wife Joanna Macleod are backing the Trust’s 2010 card recycling and native tree planting campaign as a family, with their 12 year old daughter Rachael, son Joseph (six) and even Jimmy the family dog.
Watch Colin and family at a snowy Heartwood Forest
The Casualty copper, his face familiar from The Bill, Hotel Babylon and Crossroads, is arrestingly clear on why tree planting matters; to bequeath the roots of a healthy planet for the next generation; Rachel and Joseph’s.
Their plea is simple: take your Christmas cards to the special recycling bins in Marks & Spencer, WH Smith and TK Maxx and the money raised will help the woodland conservation charity to plant 12,000 new native trees during 2010 – many by children.
Donors can even choose which part of the country they want trees to be planted by going onto the Trust web site and pledging to recycle. www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/cards
The Trust’s campaign is now going into its 13th year. In that time it has recycled 659m cards – 59m last year alone - and planted 155,000 trees across the UK.
“Planting a tree is the beginning of a new cycle, and a wonderful, important and very symbolic thing for anyone to do, especially children,” says Colin “Imagine how many children will be able to plant tiny oaks, ash and hazel trees that will stay there for ever, just from the simple act of us taking time to recycle our cards.”
“I love the woods. As a family we take the kids as often as we can. I appreciate the peace of a walk in the woods and the important talking time it gives us.”
Those walks are important for Joseph to run off boyish energy with spaniel/poodle cross ‘cocka-poo’ Jimmy (“We live near Sherwood Forest, so we go there and play Robin Hood”), but have a deeper significance for Colin’s daughter.
“Rachael suffers from low muscle tone associated with a developmental co-ordination disorder”, explains Colin “I usually end up giving her a piggy back, but it’s still a really valuable get up and go challenge for her.”
“At Christmas we all give and receive cards, many of which have been manufactured as a result of trees being chopped down. What an amazing, magical circle for us to complete by recycling cards and funding the Trust to put trees back in the ground.”
“I have loads of pictures of my kids with trees. If we don’t keep planting more, what pictures will they take of their children, and their children’s children.”
Colin is a man smitten by trees, helping sculpting colleague Richard Janes to build a children’s climbing frame out of green oak, marvelling at wood sculptures in nearby Rufford Abbey (‘They are so tactile that many have been smoothed off, literally, felt away by countless fingers”) and proud of his old Bramley apple tree’s abundant annual harvest (he cooks a mean apple pie).
“Let’s all recycle our cards and remember how important it is to keep planting.”
Notes:
Colin has been a regular face on our televisions for the last 25 years, appearing in many classic shows such as Birds of a Feather, Crossroads, Mr Bean, The Professionals and Hollyoaks. In 2009 alone he could be seen in episodes of Casualty, Hotel Babylon and Blue Murder, with episodes of The Royal and The Bill to be screened later in the year. He played Anthony Hopkins son “Martius” in the highly acclaimed film “Titus” which also starred Jessica Lange. Colin has also had a very successful career in the theatre.
Joanna was part of the Bafta award winning Tinsel Town for BBC Scotland, playing a lead role in series 1 and 2. Other television roles include Doctor’s and Roughnecks. Joanna has also worked extensively with Nottingham Playhouse’s education department, ’Roundabout’, delivering workshops and theatre to Primary, Secondary and Special Educational Needs schools throughout the Midlands.
Together they have launched a new business - Interaction Film - taking film making into schools to help communications, literacy and pupil confidence and using film production to help companies with team building.
Download hi-res images of Colin and family
Notes to editors
For media enquiries contact:
The Woodland Trust Press Office on 01476 581121, email: media@woodlandtrust.org.uk
The Woodland Trust:
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. It has 300,000 members and supporters.
The Trust has three key aims: i) to enable the creation of more native woods and places rich in trees ii) to protect native woods, trees and their wildlife for the future iii) to inspire everyone to enjoy and value woods and trees
Established in 1972, the Woodland Trust now has over 1,000 sites in its care covering approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres). Access to its sites is free.