Society Diary: did a Pudsey Bear mascot flash a mother and daughter in Leeds? You judge

Our weekly round-up of outlandish and interesting information collected from the corners of the charity sector.

Willy or won’t he?

BBC's Children in Need raised £46.6m last Friday night – absolutely smashing the previous year’s total of £37.1m. The night was obviously tinged with a sort of bitter-sweet nostalgia as it was also the first since the death of the legendary host Sir Terry Wogan.

(Sidebar: before getting into the actual body of the text, Diary wants to take a moment to say, seriously, 2016, what’s been your problem? Brexit, president-elect Trump AND the death of Sir Tez? This column for one can’t wait for the mortars to sound over the Thames, and for Big Ben to strike midnight on 31 December – 2016, get yourself gone already!)

As anyone who covers these sort of big fundraising events for a living will know, the money raised on the night is usually the tip of the iceberg in terms of total donations and, given all that’s happened of late, it’s nice to know that the generosity of the British public endures – especially when celebrities and a big furry bear with a spotty eyepatch come together on live television.

Speaking of big furry bears, what would BBC’s Children in Need really be without Pudsey? His jolly yellow face and colourful eye (patch? sling?) has become synonymous with the event.

Because of this, it is with a heavy heart Diary must report that a (not necessarily THE) Pudsey Bear was spotted in a shopping centre in Leeds last weekend, posing for photographs with children while… well, is that a willy?

The Sun certainly seems to think so.

‘PUDSEY BARE –‘ screams the headline. ‘BBC bosses investigate after a Pudsey Bear posed with a girl, 7, ‘while showing a willy’’

The meat and two-veg of this story is, basically, a woman and her young daughter were out shopping, the daughter spotted a Pudsey Bear, wanted to have her photo taken with it, the photo is taken and shared with others by the proud mother until, with a different set of eyes, said woman’s sister points out the alleged offending appendage.

Cue The Sun! Cue the tasteful puns! Cue the accusations of a possible paedophile!

First off, this column is deeply disappointed in itself that it failed to come up with a pun even half as good as 'Pudsey Bare'. Secondly, having studied the image provided by The Sun in detail, Diary’s hesitant to overtly declare whether or not this particularly Pudsey Bear is really baring all.

Still, the BBC big-wigs are reportedly thoroughly investigating the incident, and have released a statement which is, in typical BBC fashion, very much on the straight and narrow.

“The Pudsey mascot suits are issued with guidelines on how they should be worn and used to make sure Pudsey’s appearances are appropriate. The suits are not designed to look as this one does.”

Willy, or not a willy? Diary will leave it for you to decide. Fair to say that the whole thing has at least got a rise out of The Sun – that one works on two fronts.

Lego play, seriously?

LEGO Serious Play (LSP). A sort of team-bonding session/window to the soul for volunteers has been deemed a serious enough topic to warrant not only doctoral research but also a blog on NCVO.

Yes it seems that if you operate a charity that utilises the time and generosity of volunteers, the building blocks of their happiness lie in LEGO. Who knew?

According to the blog, written by Liz Dixon, a senior lecturer at the University of Huddersfield and volunteer at a local hospice, “the LEGO models are used as a focus for conversation and discussion, and to explore the nature of the volunteer role and relationships of volunteers and paid staff”.

She also writes that the “models that people build provide useful windows into their ideas and experiences” which they can be shared and discussed with the rest of the group. It also, perhaps predictably, lead to some fairly warm and fuzzy creations – “people used ‘gems’, ‘gifts’, ‘backbone’ and ‘treasure as metaphors’ – “a tower of strength supporting us and bring time and generosity” said one unnamed volunteer co-ordinator of the block-tower of Babylon.

Amazingly there’s also a LEGO SERIOUS PLAY trademarked website – which encourages people to “tap into hidden expertise within your organisation” and “transform insight and awareness into commitment and shared goals”. It even has a quote from Plato – although it’s hard to know exactly what Plato would have made of Lego, or grown men and women playing with them.

There’s also a wiki-page devoted to this: it’s well worth checking out, if only for the pictures. How serious can a man in a burgundy work-shirt (burgundy… ewww) really look while playing with Lego? Not very, is the answer.

WaterAid’s on a roll

Finally, to WaterAid who, in celebration of World Toilet Day – 19 of November, for all those who didn’t have it in their diaries – commissioned an artist to create ten “mesmerising tiny cityscapes” inside of some toilet rolls. It could have said they were ‘wee’ instead of tiny, but you get the idea.

WaterAid has done all of this to raise awareness of the “2.3 billion people without access to a safe, private toilet”.

They’re bloody good too, if the pictures are anything to go by. Also, 1,000 points for whoever came up with the title of the YouTube video imbedded below: ‘We built this city on toilet roll’ – good stuff.