Newark and Southwell community heroes awarded by MP for work during the pandemic
Community champions have been rewarded for their work during the pandemic.
Newark MP Robert Jenrick gave certificates to five deserving individuals and organisations after public nominations to his Covid Hero Awards.
Mr Jenrick said: “As we continue to fight coronavirus by playing our part, whether that is getting the booster vaccine or taking regular tests, it is important to recognise those heroes who stepped up, going above and beyond in their community by helping others.
“This summer I launched the Covid Hero Awards to give people the opportunity to nominate causes, people, and organisations in their community to be recognised for their hard work.
“We have seen people in across our area deliver food to those in need who were shielding or isolating, collecting prescriptions, tackling loneliness for the most vulnerable people in our community, and even the redeployment of staff from our local hospital to support Kings Mill as it dealt with the most severe cases.
“Their efforts have undoubtedly made a difference to people, and I would like to thank each and every person who has helped in this national effort, whether you won an award or not.”
Newark Hospital was recognised for its redeployment of colleagues to Kings Mill to support staff during the crisis. It was said to be integral to its collective response to covid-19.
The hospital was nominated by Richard Mitchell, and won a community group award.
An initiative recognised for its community support was the meal delivery service run by Wendy Baird and the team at Carriages Café, Newark.
The café provided takeaway and delivery dinners for those in need.
Wendy said: “We did a community café every Wednes-day, so when the pandemic hit we moved that to a takeaway service and continued that throughout. We did over 10,000 meals in the end, which were either sold at £2.50 a meal or given free depending on circumstance.
“The first week we did 45 meals, but at peak we were doing up to 263 a week. It was fun to do, and we had lots of help.
“Newark and Sherwood District Council helped us with drivers in the initial stage, so that enabled us to deliver the meals, and the fire brigade took over.
“It was really great, at one stage we had four shiny red fire engines sat outside ready to take the meals to people. That made a huge difference for some of the people they delivered to because they had been isolating for a long time and to have a meal delivered by a fire engine is kind of special, especially for the ones who had kids.”
Wendy said Waitrose, Morrisons, Asda, Co-op and Bakkavor all helped the café, donating food and desserts.
She said: “The major supermarkets used to drop us off any surplus veg so we could add groceries to the bags too, so it wasn’t just a meal it was whatever else we had.
“We had amazing support from other local businesses, and even my old mum, who is 83, used to go out to Lidl and buy us biscuits if we were a bit short of something to put in.
“Everybody pulled together and made it happen,” she said.
“It was lots of fun and it gave us as volunteers a purpose which was important, to give them the focus and the feeling of community which was very paramount. It was just great really,”
The presentation was attended by Peter Wood, who nominated her.
Wendy said: “I was very delighted and surprised because it was the last thing that I was expecting. But it wasn’t just me and I think it needs to be stressed that it was a whole team of people that came together and gave their time for free to enable us to do that.”
Sue Clayton, of Flintham, was nominated by Peter and Debra Winter for her and her team of volunteers’ work at the community shop, ensuring residents of Flintham and surrounding villages had access to groceries.
The shop increased orders with its supplier, bringing in extra fruit and veg boxes and meat products for those who couldn’t visit a supermarket.
Sue said: “We are all volunteers and when the first lockdown came it was clear that there were going to be a lot of problems with people accessing.
“We increased the order considerably and at the start of the pandemic we were having something like 50 to 60 orders a week. We increased the amount of meat that we were able to buy and we generally went out of our way to make sure that we’d got sufficient food available for people who were struggling, particularly if they were living on their own or didn’t have access to the internet.”
Volunteers made deliveries to the vulnerable, ensuring they had the essentials they needed while staying safe.
Sue said: “It was completely unexpected and very nice to be recognised, nice to be appreciated, but lots of other groups were also doing tremendous work. We didn’t do anything that we wouldn’t have done, its just that the time was right and we were there, we were able to move in and help people.”
Southwell Torpedos was recognised for its work during the pandemic, and the award was accepted on its behalf by town councillor Penny Rainbow.
The Torpedos team of volunteers provided a range of important services, setting up schemes including cabs for jabs — which allowed those without transport to attend vaccination appointments — and prescription pick-ups for people shielding and unable to leave home.
Penny Rainbow, who nominated the group, said: “They did shopping, collection of medication, all manner of things that people needed help with that couldn’t be addressed through the normal channels. They had people going around doing repairs, helping with computers.
“It had a tremendous impact, and a lot of people were really appreciative of it.”
Torpedos chairman Chris Prentice said: “I don’t think we did a huge amount more than an awful lot of other groups around the county and the town, but it was flattering (to be awarded).”
At its busiest the Torpedos did 75 to 100 missions a week.
Chris said: “We are still ticking away in the community for people that are isolating, o some of our older community members.”
The Torpedos worked closely with other groups in Southwell, including the Turtle Doves from the Hearty Goodfellow.
The Hearty Goodfellow, Southwell, was awarded for its Turtle Doves service.
The pub delivered free immune-boosting soups to vulnerable residents, after their Turtle Doves monthly community supper was put on hold.
Soup was made daily with fresh vegetables and over 100 bowls a day were delivered by volunteer drivers.
These deliveries also helped combat sadness, loneliness and anxiety for residents stuck inside during this time.
The pub was nominated by Helen Law.
Lisa White, who owns the Hearty Goodfellow with partner William, said: “It was absolutely wonderful to be recognised. It’s good to reflect on how far we’ve actually come — despite everything that’s still going on with covid restrictions and things like that — since that critical phase of lockdown when we were going out delivering soup to people.”
