Stars Deliver For Literacy Charities

Kate Winslet, Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Pryce and Phil Collins are among 40 celebrities who have donated their time and artistic skills to the UK Pitney Bowes Pushing the Envelope campaign.

The stars have each decorated an envelope in order to raise funds for the National Literacy Trust, and the unique framed art is available on eBay until the 20th of October.

This is the third year that the campaign has taken place, and organisers are hoping it will be as successful as last year’s auction, which raised over £11,000 for the Trust.

Pushing the Envelope usually involves simultaneous auctions around the world, with the money raised in each country going to support local literacy programs. This year Katie Melua has created an envelope for the auction taking place in France, which benefits Asmae and their work with children in the Phillipines.

In past years Pitney Bowes has sponsored auctions in the U.S. and Canada as well, featuring art from Halle Berry, Mike Myers, Lindsay Lohan and Sharon Stone for the U.S. auctions, and from Alex Trebek and Wayne Gretzky in the Canadian events. The charities to benefit from those auctions included First Book, the National Center for Family Literacy, ProLiteracy Worldwide, Reading Is Fundamental, and ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation.