TWO Westbury residents and a local business have been rewarded with certificates from the Lion’s Club, for their community work during lockdown.
Laura Searle was recognised for her “amazing” efforts mobilising a force of locals to make over 2,500 face coverings for people of Westbury and the surrounding area.
Local paramedic James Woollard (pictured left) has been serving the community throughout the lockdown, and Elliott’s Butchers carried out deliveries to folk unable to visit them.
Laura Searle accepted her award on behalf of the whole team of people in Westbury who have been making face coverings during the pandemic.
Paramedic James Woollard said along with all the other NHS staff and key workers that have worked through the pandemic, “we have just continued to do our job.”
On behalf of Elliott’s Butchers, Barbara told White Horse News that the business has proudly displayed the certificate in the shop for everyone to see.
Coordinator of a local scheme to make face coverings, Laura Searle told White Horse News, “It was lovely to accept the award but I would like people to say a big thank you to the team.
“I had an idea to co-ordinate people and it only worked because I bumped into people who would do it.”
The Westbury Mask Collective was formed at the end of June. Laura, who works as a carer, began designing and making masks after taking a risk assessment for her job and finding that disposable ones were hard to get hold of.
“I went to two local shops – The Woollery in Warminster Road and EJ Crafts in Maristow Street – and they host our mask trees which has been very helpful. From there it spread through to more people. I’m not even sure how many people we have making masks now, so it’s been a success.”
The group provides handmade face coverings for free to anyone in the community who is identified as vulnerable, whilst others can obtain a face covering for the suggested donation of £2 – any profit made is donated to Wiltshire Air Ambulance.
Laura said, “We’ve got a network of people supporting each other and helping with supplies, as elastic and materials became hard to get hold of.
“We’ve had donations etc, it would have cost me a fortune if I’d have done it on my own.
“The council put us in touch with the Lions and they gave us a £100 grant
Local paramedic, James Woollard said, “It was a surprise to be contacted by the Lions; from my understanding it was a certificate of appreciation for those that have worked through the pandemic. All the other people that have had to work through the lockdown period are just as deserving.”
James has worked for the ambulance service for over 10 years, across Wiltshire and Avon, and as a paramedic for almost four years. He said, “ I mainly work as part of a crew on an ambulance but also work shifts on the RRV (rapid response vehicle) as a solo paramedic responding to the highest priority calls.”
“I would like to emphasise that going into the winter months, the hospitals and the ambulance service are already exceptionally busy and that the public need to think before calling 999, is their call truly a life threatening problem.”
On behalf of Elliott’s Butchers, Barbara said, “The Lions Club told us we were nominated by local people for our service throughout lockdown.
“We were open all through lockdown and we were serving and doing lots of home deliveries. We had deliveries all the way to Mere and Trowbridge, so virtually anyone that phoned up. We’ve kept some of the new customers and they are still using us.”
Quite a lot of elderly and vulnerable people who could not get out, and were worried, used the delivery service.
“We did everything we could to keep them and ourselves safe, “ Barbara said. “Some people wanted us to leave their delivery in the porch and we were wearing masks and using hand sanitiser.
“We were having 35 deliveries a day. It was only me and my partner Andrew, who owns the butchers, and his father and niece helped out.
“We went from having 5/6 deliveries a day to 30. We had to keep ourselves safe to keep other people safe.”
Elliott’s is normally open 8am to 5pm but during lockdown Andrew was going to work at 2am just to cope with demand.
“He would come home for breakfast then go back to work, finish at 5pm, come home, shower and go to bed,” Barbara said.
“We were trying to make sure that everybody got what they wanted.”
