Gloucestershire College Fashion4Good

Olympic champion Peter Reed has joined forces with Gloucestershire College to help Cotswold Care Hospice.

Rower Pete, who won a gold medal in the coxless four in the Beijing Olympics, backing the college’s Fashion4Good.

Students and staff at the campuses in Cheltenham and Gloucester are being encouraged to bring their unwanted clothing to college and donate it to Cotswold Care.

The donations will be sold in the hospice’s 10 charity shops. The shops generate a third of the income needed every year to run the hospice.

The six-month project started with a competition for the HND Graphic Design students to dream up a logo, slogan and poster campaign.

The winning campaign name was Fashion4Good – Find Fashion a New Home. The students who worked on the art work were: Ami Campbell, Josh Alidina, Laura Smith, Tim McCluskey, Daniel Mcshee, Dominic Perry, Martin Dolman and Ami Campbell.

Three National Diploma Media students - Jamil Foster, Todd Collier and Ross Morgan - made a film about the campaign. They visited the hospice to record staff and patients and travelled to the national rowing team’s headquarters in Reading to interview Peter Reed.

“One of the easiest ways people can support the hospice is by donating your clothes,” said Pete. “A bin bag full of clothes can be worth £50 to Cotswold Care.

“If we all donated something we could make a huge difference. Every penny counts - it really does. It costs £4,750 a day for the hospice to provide all its free services. It is so important for us to support them.”

“It is a cause I feel very passionate about,” said Pete. “It’s a real privilege to be associated with the hospice.”

Clare Ward, Student Leadership Manager, said: “Gloucestershire College is delighted to work with Cotswold Care Hospice to give our students the opportunity to make a positive contribution to the local community through donating and redesigning clothes and their contributions towards the live project brief.

“We would like to thank our HND Graphic Design and National Diploma Media students for their time and professionalism in creating a DVD and posters to market the Fashion4Good campaign. The students jumped at the opportunity to use their skills to promote such a worthwhile cause.”

Pete, who grew up in Nailsworth, rarely gets back to Gloucestershire. He trains seven days a week. His dream is to win a second gold medal - this time in London in front of a home crowd in 2012.

“If I do win I will happily donate one of racing lyrcas to Cotswold Care Hospice,” he said. “It can always be auctioned off.”

One of the posters designed by Gloucestershire College pupils

GlosCol students Todd Collier (left), Jamil Foster and Ross Morgan with Pete Reed at the national rowing team’s HQ in Reading