Seeds for Nurses: Gold Key Media and clients join Project Wingman to support NHS staff
UK based distribution and engagement agency, Gold Key Media (GKM), has this week launched a new NHS wellbeing campaign. The initiative, in partnership with Bauer Media and Chelsea Magazines, as well as NHS support group, Project Wingman, will see 300,000+ packets of seeds distributed directly to NHS workers to plant this Spring.
Project Wingman was first set up in April 2020, in response to the onset of the global Covid-19 pandemic and subsequent national lockdowns in the UK. Special ‘First Class Lounges’ have been set-up in hospitals across the country, which – staffed by professional aircrew – provide a catered setting in which key workers can attempt to relax during breaks from the frontline. A touring version of the lounge in the form of a double decker bus was introduced at the beginning of this month.
In addition to coffee and conversation, the project has also been supported by GKM and its clients, by way of the sourcing, donation, and delivery of more than GBP £3.5 million (US $4.9m) worth of publications, snacks, and beauty products.
The new campaign, dubbed ‘Seeds for Nurses’, allows Gold Key Media to leverage its distribution capabilities even further, and in addition to the printed pages of its client’s magazines, place other tangible items into the hands of key workers. Seed packets provide a particularly powerful piece from a psychological wellbeing perspective, representing growth, colour, and hope for a brighter future.
“Planting seeds in the Spring is such a positive and therapeutic experience,” says Chris Horn, Managing Director of Gold Key Media. “If this initiative helps some of our amazing NHS nurses and other workers who are battling away daily on the front lines to feel positive and good about the future, then that would be a perfect result for me.”
Captain Emma Henderson MBE, CEO and Co-Founder of Project Wingman, added: “We have been so grateful at Project Wingman for all the support that Gold Key Media have provided over the last year. I really love ‘Seeds for Nurses’, especially given the known effects of gardening on mental health and wellbeing and am really looking forward to seeing some of the results.”
The move comes on the back of the news that the Chelsea Flower Show will be postponed until the Autumn, an event that Gold Key Media clients – Chelsea Magazines and Bauer Media – have traditionally held a strong presence at. Instead of distributing seed packets via stands and publications this year, a large inventory with a retail value in excess of £400,000 ($556,000) will be donated and distributed directly to key workers by GKM on behalf of these publishers.
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