Katherine Waterston, best known for playing Tina in the Fantastic Beasts films, is a founding member of SpareHand, an app that matches volunteers with organizations to help others during the coronavirus pandemic.
“At the start of the pandemic, I got COVID-19 and was hospitalised here in London where I received fantastic treatment from the NHS. While I was recuperating at home and considering how I might meaningfully give back, my friend Scott Liddle told me about his idea for SpareHand and I immediately jumped on board. It’s been great to be part of SpareHand and to witness its phenomenal growth in just a couple of months. It’s been great to see how individuals and charities alike have taken to the service; to hear them rave about its ease of use is really encouraging. I have always suspected that there’s a large portion of the population who want to volunteer but are deterred from doing so because they don’t know how or where or, like me, they have schedules that make it difficult to commit to regular service – SpareHand solves all these problems.”
Katherine Waterston
SpareHand helps charities and community groups find and manage volunteers through an app. If you are in the United Kingdom and wish to sign up as a volunteer visit this page. Organizations in the UK requiring help can register here.
From the press release:
SpareHand, a free platform that is helping charities to match volunteers to tasks in their neighbourhood, announces today that it has prepared and delivered half a million meals during the coronavirus lockdown.
Set up in March 2020, SpareHand helps charities and community groups find and manage volunteers using a sophisticated algorithm to ensure high-quality matching of volunteers to those in need. The platform puts community groups and charities in the driving seat – giving them the tools to find, manage and schedule volunteers, reliably and at scale.
Over 3,000 volunteers have signed up, giving 27,000 hours of their time over the last 10 weeks. Volunteers include Jude Law, Vanessa Kirby, Lashana Lynch, and Naomie Harris who have played their part in preparing and delivering meals for those vulnerable to the virus.
SpareHand was developed in partnership with HireHand, a tech start-up that has built the platform and sophisticated matching algorithm powering this Covid-19 reponse.
Some of the charity partners SpareHand has worked with include:
Bicester Pioneer Volunteers: packing 1 million meals as part of the Salute the NHS project. SpareHand is providing over 100 volunteers every day, 7 days per week, for this effort.
South Central Ambulance Service: SpareHand finds drivers to help with crucial PPE deliveries.
Magic Breakfast: SpareHand provides volunteers to deliver breakfast supplies from schools to kids in households in need – right across London.
Beyond the Covid-19 crisis, SpareHand seeks to reset fundamentally the way people think about volunteering, making it easy, fun, and meaningful – and crucially part of everyone’s weekly routine. The world will be different after the Coronavirus pandemic: strong communities will be at the heart of how we live and thrive.
Nine new posters for Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald have been released featuring character shots and taglines for the films major players. We see Newt Scamander, Albus Dumbledore, Gellert Grindelwald, Jacob, Credence, Leta, Theseus, Queenie and Tina Goldstein. Each poster contains a tagline pertaining to that characters wearabouts or role in the film. All nine Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald posters can be viewed in the gallery!
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald hits theaters on November 16, 2018.
Update:a tenth character poster has been released featuring none other than…..NAGINI! Yes, Nagini is a woman, more specifically a Maledictus. Not to be confused with an Animagi or Werewolves, Maledictuses are always women and carry a blood curse from birth, which is passed down from mother to daughter. The slow transformation into a beast is beyond their control, but they aren’t destined to be evil and are not all are snakes. (Source: Twitter replies from Jo to fans)
Join the cast from Fantastic Beasts for a live Q&A and be the first to see exciting new footage from Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them. They also revealed that fans in the US will be able to stay after the event to watch Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone in IMAX, it’s first ever screening!
Tickets are available here. Unfortunately you have to add yourself to the waitlist now if you’re interested in attending as passes have run out.
As the excitement builds for the November 18th opening of Warner Bros. Pictures’ new adventure “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” fans will get to experience some of the film’s magic early at the global celebration A RETURN TO J.K. ROWLING’S WIZARDING WORLD. The worldwide fan event will kick off on Thursday, October 13th, at 8:30 p.m. GMT (3:30 p.m. EDT, 12:30 p.m. PDT) and simultaneously in major cities in the U.S. and internationally. The announcement comes on the heels of this morning’s debut of the brand new trailer for the film.
Sue Kroll, Warner Bros. Pictures’ President of Worldwide Marketing and Distribution, stated, “The enthusiasm and support of wizarding world fans everywhere has meant so much to us, as well as the filmmakers. We are proud to share some exciting footage from ‘Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them’ at this global event created just for them, and are especially thrilled that most can experience it in IMAX.”
Attendees will first be treated to a never-before-seen reel featuring some of the thrilling moments from the much-anticipated film. Talent from “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” will be joining the celebration, in person, at two IMAX theatres, in London and Los Angeles, to welcome the fans.
• In London: Eddie Redmayne, Katherine Waterston, Alison Sudol, Dan Fogler, and director David Yates will be on hand.
• In Los Angeles: Colin Farrell and Jon Voight will be in attendance.
Fans gathered at those locations, as well as attendees watching from IMAX theatres in New York, Sao Paulo and Mexico City, as well as a non-IMAX theatre in Rome, will be able to submit questions to the stars and director during the Q&A. It will be a rare opportunity to learn more about the story and their thrilling foray into a new era of the wizarding world.
The footage shown, as well as the Q&A, will also be streamed live online at www.facebook.com/fantasticbeastsmovie so eager fans around the world can share in the excitement.
Fans at each location will be presented with a specially designed “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” exclusive t-shirt, commemorating the worldwide event, as well as a collectible mini-poster.
As an added bonus, audiences in the U.S. theatres can stay for a special screening of “Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone,” being presented for the first time ever in IMAX.
The news just keeps on coming this week! EW has just released character descriptions for the main cast of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. These descriptions come with some higher resolution photos of the supporting cast, which can be seen in the gallery!
Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scramander
An eccentric globe-hopping English “magizoologist” wizard who’s far more comfortable around beasts and creatures than he is around other people. Comes to New York on a quest with his case full of magical habitats containing rare and endangered species.
Katherine Waterston as Porpentina “Tina” Goldstein
An ambitious worker at the Magical Congress of the United States of America (aka MACUSA, the U.S. version of the Ministry of Magic) who meets Newt. Tina is relegated to an office well below her abilities after she stood up for the wrong person. She longs to fight for what’s right.
Alison Sudol as Queenie Goldstein
Tina’s younger sister and roommate, a big-hearted free-spirit “legilimens” who can read minds.
Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski
An optimistic No-Maj (aka Muggle) factory worker/aspiring baker who gets introduced to the wizarding world when he meets Newt. Fun fact: He’s the Harry Potter franchise’s first Muggle main character.
Colin Farrell as Graves
A powerful auror and the right-hand man of the American wizarding world’s president.
Samantha Morton as Mary Lou
The narrow-minded leader of the fanatical Second Salemers, a group looking to expose and destroy wizards and witches.
Ezra Miller as Credence
Perhaps the cast’s most mysterious character. He’s Mary Lou’s troubled adopted son.
In addition to the photo of Newt Scamander featured on the cover of Entertainment Weekly, EW has released some more behind the scenes photos from the set of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them! You can view all the photos in our gallery!
In the cover image, we got a first look at Scamander, his pivotal briefcase in hand, standing inside the entrance of the majestic art deco-influenced Magical Congress of the United States of America (or MACUSA), which is the American version of the Ministry of Magic that’s housed inside the Woolworth Building in the film.
These new photos show Katherine Waterston as Porpentina “Tina” Goldstein, Eddie Redmayne as Newt Scamander, Alison Sudol and Queenie Goldstein, and Dan Fogler as Jacob Kowalski in various locations.
Entertainment Weekly have released a preview of their next issue which includes the first ever look at Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them starring Eddie Redmayne. Good Morning America also revealed an inner page of the issue (Thanks to fbawtftfilms on Twitter.) You can see both photos in the gallery! In their little teaser for the feature EW says:
Beasts stars Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) as world-famous magizoologist Newt Scamander, who embarks on an adventure in 1926 New York. In our cover image, you get a first look at Scamander, his pivotal briefcase in hand, standing inside the entrance of the majestic art deco-influenced Magical Congress of the United States of America (or MACUSA), which is the American version of the Ministry of Magic that’s housed inside the Woolworth Building in the film. Coming along for the ride are Katherine Waterston (Steve Jobs), Colin Farrell (True Detective) and Samantha Morton (Minority Report).
So what’s this movie actually about? What are the characters? How will Fantastic Beasts differ from the Potter films? What creatures can we expect? And what are American wizards like, anyway? We’ll have all that, interviews with the cast and producers, plus first photos from the set, and more.
Pick up the new issue of Entertainment Weekly, on newsstands Friday, or buy it here. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will be released on November 18th 2016.
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