Echo helps with planting remembrance poppies at The Tower of London

Mandy McCubbin, Account Manager explains how Echo got involved with planting poppies through one of Echo’s newest clients – Historic Royal Palaces.

In September the Bristol contact centre took on a brand new client – Historic Royal Palaces. The Echo team were immediately handling high volumes of customer enquiries regarding the ‘Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red’ installation in The Tower of London. Ceramic poppies are being planted to mark the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of World War One in a bid to both raise money and awareness of the human loss resulting from the conflict.

HRH The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry launched the initiative on the 5th August and the hotline, run by Echo, took over 15,000 calls in the first two weeks from members of the public who were interested in buying a poppy – available when the exhibit is taken down after Remembrance Day in November.

From the Echo team’s perspective the campaign has been fast moving – a massive rush of initial calls that we were fully prepared to handle that has now steadied to a more balanced volume. After representing the campaign and Historic Royal Palaces for a number of weeks, the Echo team was keen to see the spectacle for ourselves. We volunteered to take a trip to London to help plant poppies in the dry moat at the Tower and help the exhibit move towards its goal of planting 888,246 poppies – one for each WW1 UK military fatality - by Remembrance Day.

We had a great team-building day in very moving, atmospheric surroundings. Between us I believe we planted over 500 poppies. We were also fortunate to meet Paul Cummins - the artist who designed the ceramic tributes. Pictured below are Huwaida Ismail (Team Leader), George Thompson, Eve Marangon (Contact Centre Manager), myself, Tom Lewis (at the back), Paul Cummins (the ceramic artist who designed the poppies) & his colleague, Echo’s Rachel Clarke and Reece Kelly. The number will increase as other volunteer groups get involved throughout October until the 888,246 target is reached with the last poppy is symbolically planted on Remembrance Day. It was certainly a special day for the Echo team for a unique assignment, and one we’ve all enjoyed supporting both in our contact centre and at the Tower of London.

Mandy.