James Pendleton Estate Agents recently called upon the talents of Wandsworth and Lambeth schoolchildren in a bid to bring the Easter Bunny to life! Nearly 450 children aged four to eleven submitted their drawings, whose aim was to promote and celebrate local creative talent as well as finding a potential new mascot for James Pendleton’s charity organisation, Live to Give. The competition offered children the chance to have their drawing custom made into a completely unique cuddly toy bunny!

The judging panel met on 19th April to deliberate and select the winning drawings. The jury consisted of former local art teacher and education expert Hazel Hardy, Mumsnet representative Alex Sykes, arts executive Lizie Gower and Lee Pendleton, CEO of James Pendleton. The winning drawings were selected using criteria of cuteness, creativity and enthusiasm, and in order to help the judging process the images were divided into age groups, with the winners from each group put though to a decider round. The judging process can be seen along with the winning drawings at jamespendleton.co.uk/easterbunny.

The decision making process proved a real challenge as the drawings submitted were fantastically diverse and inventive. The bunny which was chosen as overall winner was drawn by Emma Beart, age 5, of Finton House School. Her school will receive £1000 and her family will win a three day trip to CenterParcs. In addition, Emma’s bunny will be made into a cuddly toy for her to treasure!

As the drawings showed such a high level of skill, the judges found deciding on a single winner too difficult. They therefore also awarded second, third, fourth and fifth prizes as well as a list of Honorable Mentions. The second and third prize winners, Joseph Withers and Anna Varley will also receive a custom cuddly bunny, and the other shortlisted children will be able to collect a sweet treat from one of James Pendleton’s seven offices!

You can see all the wonderful drawings received at James Pendleton’s Easter Bunny blog: http://jpeasterbunny.tumblr.com/ If you participated in this competition and would like to have your drawing back, please email: easterbunny@jphomes.co.uk To find out more about the LivetoGive charity organisation please visit http://www.livetogive.org.uk/ Based on information supplied by Samantha Penn.