It’s snowflake season!

The Sheffield community knows when Christmas is just around the corner, because the snowflakes on Sheffield Children’s Hospital are lit!

The Elev8 team have installed these very special Christmas lights for the past six  years, and we’ve got the project planning and execution down to a fine art!

Raising money for an excellent cause

Every year businesses, schools, community groups, families and individuals sponsor snowflakes. Snowflakes are Christmas lights which are installed on various buildings around South Yorkshire including Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Sheffield City Hall and in Chesterfield town centre. 

The money raised supports specialist treatment at the hospital by funding life-saving equipment, new facilities, art workshops, and vital research, which changes paediatric care for thousands of children from across the world.

Over the last six years the Elev8 team have supported this amazing Charity by volunteering their time and providing some of the access equipment used for the installation for free.  This year we were delighted to receive a special recognition award from the charity, you can find out more here.

T260 truck mounted cherry picker installing Christmas lights Sheffield Nov 23
The Ruthmann TBR260 cherry picker providing access to safely install Christmas lights on the turning circle at Sheffield Children's Hospital

Accommodating the new helipad

Every year our team start planning this lighting project months in advance. This year the position of some of the Christmas lights needed changing to accommodate the new helipad on the roof of the hospital.  Members of the Elev8 team were on site weeks ago installing 80 new eyebolts so that the position of some of the snowflakes could be moved.

Project planning

Another exciting development this year was the arrival of a new baby.  Adam, Elev8’s project manager who oversees this project, was expecting a baby around the time we normally install the snowflakes.  We took this into account in our project planning and Matt (a member of the Elev8 team) assisted with running this year’s project.

We are very pleased to say Adam’s baby arrived safe and sound, and like the super star he is Adam still managed to get to site to help the team.

Christmas light installation at Sheffield Children's Nov 23
Elev8's Ruthmann T510HF access platform helping to install Christmas lights at Sheffield Children's Hospital 2023. Look closely and you can see The Children's Hospital Charity logo on her boom!

Snowflakes installed ahead of schedule

The installation of the snowflakes was planned to take place over two weekends in November, with a contingency weekend before switch-on to install any additional snowflakes.

The hospital is situated on a major road, so to keep everyone safe during the installation  traffic and pedestrian management was provided by Elev8’s traffic management team.

To speed up the installation we used several MEWPS over both weekends.  The Ruthmann TBR260,  T380 and T510HF access platforms and the Bronto S56XR MEWP all providing access for our team to install the Christmas lights.  Check out the amazing 38.5 metres of out reach on the S56XR access platform (photo right) put to good use installing the snowflakes.

This year’s installation was a true team effort between the hospital’s estate team, The Children’s Hospital Charity and Elev8.  Everyone worked hard in the cold and rain to install the snowflakes, and even managed to finish one day ahead of schedule.  Scroll down to see lots more photos of us installing these Christmas lights below. 

S56XR MEWP installing Sheffield Children's Christmas lights Nov 23
Elev8's Bronto S56XR access platform using some of it's 38.5 metres of lateral outreach to install Christmas lights at Sheffield Children's Hospital.

“The Elev8 team are proud to support The Children’s Hospital Charity year after year. Many of us have either used the hospital when we were children or have our own children who might need treatment. I was a frequent visitor at the hospital when I was a child, and as a new dad I felt I wanted to support the charity and have sponsored a snowflake this year.
The installation of the snowflakes is a huge team effort between the hospital’s estates team, The Children’s Hospital Charity and Elev8. Thank you to Ash, Ben P, Ben B, Chris, Jon, Lee, Mark and Tom from Elev8 who gave up their weekends to install the snowflakes, and an extra special thank you to Matt for assisting with running the project.”

Elev8's snowflake at Sheffield Children's Hospital
Elev8's snowflake proudly displayed on Sheffield Children's Hospital 2023

Merry Christmas Lights

You can find these special fundraising snowflakes on Sheffield Children’s Hospital, Sheffield City Hall and other venues around South Yorkshire too.

Our thanks to The Children’s Hospital Charity and the hospital estates team for being a pleasure to work with.  And of course, a huge thank you to all the businesses, schools, community groups, families, and individuals who have sponsored snowflakes.

This Christmas The Children’s Hospital Charity has lots of fund-raising initiatives with money raised going towards funding new facilities, lifesaving equipment, pioneering research as well as some very worthy projects at the hospital. 

The team at Elev8 wish all the children & staff at Sheffield Children’s Hospital a happy Christmas. We hope that the children using the hospital enjoy their Christmas snowflakes.