GLOUCESTERSHIRE, UK — Renishaw employees raised over £4,000 for charity by supporting Wrong Trousers Day. On the day, employees ditched their usual workwear in favor of weird and wacky trousers to raise money for The Grand Appeal, the Bristol Children’s Hospital charity. Renishaw is also supporting The Grand Appeal’s Gromit Unleashed 2 trail as a Trailblazer and has designed and manufactured an interactive sculpture for the trail, known as Gromitronic.

Wrong Trousers Day is supported by thousands of schools and businesses across the South West. On June 29, the event was hosted across four Renishaw sites in Gloucestershire; the New Mills headquarters site, Charfield and Woodchester. The team at Wotton Travel, Renishaw’s travel agency on Wotton-Under-Edge high street, also got involved.

On the day, employees donated over £2,112, which will be matched by the Charities Committee to make an overall donation of over £4,224. The company has also hosted a bake sale to support the same cause.

To further support The Grand Appeal, Renishaw has produced an interactive character for the charity’s 67-sculpture trail in Bristol, Gromit Unleashed 2. Renishaw has produced one of three moving sculptures, the first in the world in a trail of this kind. Renishaw’s character, Gromitronic, can be found at M Shed in Bristol from July 2 to Sept. 2.

“Renishaw’s participation in the event was inspired by our character, Gromitronic,” explained Sarah Plant, senior design engineer at Renishaw’s Encoder Products Division and member of Renishaw’s fundraising committee. “A dedicated team of graduates and apprentices, supported by Principal Engineer Dave Collingwood, were involved in making the sculpture, but we wanted to make the support for the Children’s Hospital company-wide.”

“We had really good take up across our sites,” added Plant. “Renishaw employees were sporting some entertaining outfits. One employee even made the wrong trousers from Wallace and Gromit out of papier mache!”

“Bristol Children’s Hospital is a charity close to the hearts of many of Renishaw’s employees,” explained Chris Pockett, head of communications at Renishaw. “Many of our staff have a personal connection with the local hospital, either through family or friends. This year Renishaw has raised over £4,000, an impressive contribution as the region-wide event totalled around £20,000 last year.”

Since 1995, The Grand Appeal has raised over £50 million to support critically ill children and babies. For more information on The Grand Appeal visit grandappeal.org.uk. For more information on Renishaw, visit renishaw.com.