If you're in London any time in May or June, chances are you'll see some brightly painted life-size baby elephant sculptures around the city. There are 250 of them in all - and they're much more than just colourful decorations.

Elephant Parade 2010, hosted by Elephant Family and the Greater London Authority, is raising awareness of the crisis faced by the endangered Asian elephant. It will also help raise funds for WWF.

Each of the 250 elephants started life as a blank sculpture. Artists and celebrities were then invited to design and decorate them - and their work will be seen all around central London, in parks, on street corners, even on or inside buildings.

Locations include Green Park, Hyde Park, St James's Park, King's Road, Queen's Walk, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Street, Hamley's Toy Store, Selfridge's, Trafalgar Square, Westminster, Marble Arch, Chelsea Royal Hospital, the Natural History Museum, even as far out as Greenwich and Brixton. Download a map and a full list of all the elephants on display.

WWF supporter and celebrity ex-footballer Graeme Le Saux has contributed a design on behalf of WWF (it's been given the name 'Russell' - see photo above). Graeme says: "This use of public art is a brilliant way to raise awareness of conservation issues. I've designed a tree illustrating WWF branches of support all over the planet. Falling leaves represent lost species while we try to protect all that remains."

Other designers and artists involved include Jack Vettriano, Laura Ford, Tommy Hilfiger, Rosie Brooks, Storm Thorgerson and Nina Campbell. The elephant artworks will be auctioned at a special event in July, with proceeds going towards elephant conservation.

Why Elephant Parade matters

It was estimated in 2003 that there are only between 41,000 and 52,000 elephants roaming wild in the tropical forests of Asia. Accurate elephant figures are notoriously hard to gauge, because of the dense vegetation, difficult terrain and the fact that herds often move over large distances. But it's clear the overall trend is still downwards.

One of the biggest threats to the elephants is conflict with people. This has increased mostly through loss of habitat - because of logging, agriculture, industry and human settlement. Elephants try to follow their traditional migration corridors, or to find food, but they might encounter roads, fields and villages in the way. This can lead to conflict with local people, which could be fatal for both sides.

Funds raised by Elephant Parade will go towards working with local people and governments to help secure more land that can be used as corridors by the elephants.

You can:

• Read more about WWF's work to protect Asian elephants
• Adopt a real elephant
• Visit the Elephant Parade website - see images and video of amazing elephant artworks

Robert Symon, Manager of Jumbo Storage at Leek Road Hanley is appealing for someone to come forward and claim a lost gnome. He was discovered abandoned on a ledge at the company's storage facility in Hanley and is believed to have been left behind by a customer collecting their goods after a period in storage.

The homeless gnome could belong to a Stoke City supporter as he is dressed in red and white with the Britannia logo across his shirt. Jumbo manager, Robert who has been a Stoke City supporter all his life says: "I am very fond of gnomes and I have called this lost little chap "Mr Pulis" until we can trace his owner".

Anyone with any information about the lost gnome should contact Robert at Jumbo Self Storage, 292 Leek Road, Hanley, telephone 0800 0126 400 where he is being well looked after.

A Jumbo thanks from Glenis at our Tunstall depot for all the help and gifts from our wonderful customers.

Your generous donations helped the Salvation Army raise a total of 8,622 gifts for its "Give a gift and light up a life" Christmas appeal.

This far exceeded the 7,000 gifts donated in 2008 and has enabled the Salvation Army to give gifts to over 1,500 families in North Staffordshire.

An excerpt from the Salvation Army's thankyou letter quotes: "We thank you for all your hard work in collecting these gifts for us and putting a smile on the children's faces on Christmas Day."

Glenis Wood, who is a key member of staff at our Tunstall store, also works part time at the Salvation Army on a voluntary basis. Glenis suggested we should support the Salvation army toy appeal where she will spend her time collecting and wrapping presents for less fortunate families in the Tunstall area. Click here to read more.
Glenis commented "some of these children wouldn't have a present to open if it wasn't for the kind donations from local businesses and the general public".

Jumbo Storage has now joined the increasingly popular DHL service point network.

Parcels and mail can be sent from our two convenient Hanley and Tunstall depots with daily collections and guaranteed deliveries.

More details can be found on our DHL Servicepoint web page.

Robert Symon, General Manager was delighted to present our lucky student summer storage competitiion winner with an iPod Touch. Melanie Sherry sadly failed to pick her own name out of the hat; however Hannah Jones was delighted and is looking forward to surfing the net, watching movies and listening to music in between lectures...

A big thank you from all at Jumbo Storage to all those who took part and we look forward to offering you a chance to enter further competitions in the near future.

Families and young couples hit by the recession are being offered a lifeline by local Stoke-on-Trent company Jumbo Self Storage. Provided they store their possessions at Jumbo Self Storage's Tunstall depot, those who have been evicted or had their homes repossessed are being offered a free van and driver for the day to enable them to move their belongings.

To help out further, Jumbo Self Storage have kindly offered half price storage for people who find themselves in these unfortunate circumstances. For the full story, please follow this link to the Sentinel news page.