Rotary Amber Valley are helping volunteers in Derbyshire make scrubs for hospital staff using their sewing skills and domestic sewing machines.
Rotarian Geraldine Stamp is leading the project and said: “Rotary didn’t hesitate to support this worthwhile project at this difficult time.”
Scrubs are protective garments designed to be worn by the doctor, nurse, and others in the operating room.
During the coronavirus pandemic, the wearing of scrubs extends to more general use in medical and social care, protecting both staff and patients.
Rotary didn’t hesitate to support this worthwhile project at this difficult time.”
A national organisation was started ‘For The Love Of Scrubs’ (FTLOS) by Cambridgeshire nurse Ashleigh Linsdell during the pandemic.
People soon started regional groups, and a Derbyshire group was established by Verity Ruane supported by members Helen Bradley and Sandra Maycock.
Sandra Maycock said: “We started by using our own money, but it’s great that Rotary Amber Valley is supporting us to buy the fabric in sufficient amounts to keep FTLOS going and support our NHS.”
There are now around 800 (FTLOS) people nationally using home sewing skills to make SCRUBS having obtained the stringent specifications from the NHS.
it’s great that Rotary Amber Valley is supporting us to buy the fabric in sufficient amounts to keep FTLOS going and support our NHS.”
In order to start making hospital scrubs for the Derby Royal Hospital’s specifications, members used their own money or sought donations to buy fabric. So Rotary Amber Valley offered to help buy this specialist fabric with a donation of £318.
Andrew Loades, a community governor for the NHS University Hospital of Derby and Burton: “This project is an excellent example of public support and how organisations are working together.
“The Rotary Club of Amber Valley has provided some financial support to buy material for the Derby group of FTLOS – For The Love of SCRUBS.”
Yelverton Rotary in Devon has donated £350 towards the Tavistock Scrubs Hub
Yelverton Rotary in Devon has donated £350 towards the Tavistock Scrubs Hub to buy a roll of scrub material and sewing items to help make scrubs for care homes and doctors’ surgeries.
Last week, an appeal went out from Northampton General Hospital to provide a microwave oven for each ward, so that staff could warm meals without leaving their posts. Nene Valley Rotary responded by donating 25 microwaves through Northamptonshire Health Charity.
The club have also helped in the refurbishment of seven rooms in the new Northampton Association for Accommodation of Single Homeless hostel, St James, which will provide shelter for the homeless.
They are also continuing to support the Weston Favell Food Bank, delivering food donations and sending much needed funds to help with the increased demand.
Club president Neil Hufton admitted that in this time of lockdown, it was difficult for members to get out in the community, but they still wanted to meet immediate needs.
it was difficult for members to get out in the community, but they still wanted to meet immediate needs.”
He said: “It is also important that we deliver our commitments to local charities, so this week we have brought forward our donations totalling £7,500 to Northampton Alzheimer’s (£3000), Northampton First Responders (£3000), Young Carers (£1000), Northampton Breast Friends (£500).”
An additional £8,000 was raised from the inaugural Santa Fun Run, organised by the four Rotary clubs in Northampton. This has now been distributed to the Cynthia Spencer Hospice (£4500), The Hope Centre (£1000) and Lowdown (£2500).
Northwich Vale Royal Rotary in Cheshire is actively working closely with their local community and town council to assist those who are self-isolating, in need or disadvantaged.
They have donated £1,000 to our Northwich in Need and the Northwich Isolation Support Group, who are distributing food and essentials items to the those most in need in our local community.
The club is regularly calling those on their ‘Pensioners Party’ contact list, checking if they are in need of anything. community.
Rotary Hounslow has worked alongside the Osterley & Wyke Green Residents’ Association community group and contributed £800 towards the purchase of a 3D printer and materials. As a result, the group has supplied and delivered 1,545 visors to Hounslow NHS staff.
In Manchester, Salford with Swinton Rotarians delivered visors and faces masks to hospices and care homes in Salford.
“We were given a great welcome by them all,” said David Ellis.
“A big thank you to the NHS and all the carers in care homes, hospices and in the community. And thank you to Swati Mukherjee and Bolton Lever Rotary for setting up this project.”
Salford with Swinton Rotarians delivered visors and faces masks to hospices and care homes in Salford.
In Greater Manchester, Turton Rotary delivered much-needed personal protection equipment to a nursing home in Little Hulton.
And the club also made its first delivery of scrubs to Bolton Hospital.
On their Facebook page, Turton Rotary said: “Our first delivery of the scrubs made with the fabric you helped us buy has been very well received at the hospital.
“Our volunteers have worked very hard and our coordinator put them through a tough quality control.
“We are made up and thank you to Turton Rotary for helping make this massive leap in the quality of what we are doing to support or hospital heroes.”
Turton Rotary delivered much-needed personal protection equipment to a nursing home in Little Hulton.
In West Yorkshire, Haworth and Worth Valley Rotary’s seamstresses have been busy producing a colourful array for scrubs for front-line workers.
At Wensleydale Rotary, they have been working closely with Settle Rotary, who has two Rotarians making plastic visors, which are going to care homes and doctors’ surgeries. They are also making scrubs for the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton.
In Bedfordshire, Leighton Linslade Rotary have been supporting Jacqui Hargreaves, a design technology teacher from Leighton Buzzard, who has made more than a thousand visors for frontline NHS staff in a fortnight.
With husband Steve, and daughter Alice, they have become a mini industry using a 3D printer. “We’re lucky enough to have a building at the end of the garden that we had turned into a workshop,” said Jacqui.
The family are being supported by Leighton Linslade Rotary, as well as a JustGiving page, which has so far raised more than £4,000.
Jacqui Hargreaves, a design technology teacher from Leighton Buzzard, who has made more than a thousand visors for frontline NHS staff in a fortnight.
Rotarian Peter Banwell said that they had been working to secure extra materials and help to upscale the development of the visors.
He said: “We’re proud of what Jacqui and Steve are doing. It is amazing what they have managed to do in their back garden.
“We are so impressed by her imagination and her determination.”
In Staffordshire, Newcastle under Lyme Rotary has ordered another £2,000 worth of face visors which will be distributed locally.
Newcastle under Lyme Rotary has ordered another £2,000 worth of face visors which will be distributed locally.
Club President, Rene Carlisle, reported the had been able to obtain high-quality face visors thanks to Cannock Rotary which has connections with a printing firm, and a company called Kazoo, who have made the visors.
“We purchased 2,700 visors, which went to the Care Commissioning Hub which is based locally in Trentham and they supply the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, as well as nursing and care homes which come under their umbrella.
“We hope that our small contribution makes a difference.”
And in Hampshire, Winchester Rotary have been delivering protective visors manufactured at Peter Symonds College to local care homes and businesses, including opticians and funeral directors.
Winchester Rotary have been delivering protective visors manufactured at Peter Symonds College to local care homes and businesses, including opticians and funeral directors.
It’s a similar story across the border in West Sussex, where Worthing Rotary have delivered 700 visors to Worthing Hospital, chemists and doctors’ surgeries, as well as nursing homes. Epsom Rotary in Surrey has donated boxes of face creams to the local hospitals.
Halifax Rotary’s newest member, John Dinsdale, works as a consultant in the airline industry, where he has collected a number of toiletry bags on his travels.
He has been asking residents on his street to help fill them with personal care items which will be donated to the Overgate Hospice and the Calderdale Royal Hospital for patients.
In Scotland, members of the Rotary Leven in Fife have delivered more than 100 meals to vulnerable people in Largo and Levenmouth.
The club has teamed up with the owners of Agenda, using the kitchen to make meals. Currently, 98 people receive meals, which have including stovies, steak pies and soups.
Meals are also delivered to people who usually use the Arden House Project, which helps elderly people who live independently.
“The people are delighted to get them,” club treasurer Julie Brownlie, told Fife Today.
“We’ve got a lot of great feedback. It’s not just going to people who are self-isolating, but also those in hardship, who might not have a lot of money.”
The club has also donated 100 rainbow bags, packed with toiletries, to Victoria Hospital, and is now raising funds to buy more bags, including ones for children that are packed with toys.
On top of all that, the club, made up of just 28 members, some of whom have not been able to help because they are self-isolating, has been donating £1,000 a month to the local foodbank, £600 a month to another food initiative and £500 to Blood Bikes Scotland.
“We wanted to make sure help got to the people who need it,” explained Julie. “A lot of people are going under the radar and not getting help from other groups.
“Rotary is about being people of action – and that is what we are doing.”
Rotarian Sally Scales deliving “boredom busters.”
Also in Scotland, Rotarian Sally Scales came up with a brilliant idea to provide people in Cockermouth suffering with underlying health conditions with packs of ‘boredom busters’.
These are puzzles, games and magazines, and she has been receiving donations of materials from across the community.
In Wales, Llandovery Rotary in Carmarthenshire donated four tablets to the residents of Llanfair Grange Home to help them contain their families on the internet.
In Devon, Preston Torbay Rotary has just made the second grant from its recently launched Appeal Fund.
Preston Torbay Rotary has just made the second grant from its recently launched Appeal Fund.
The beneficiary charity is the Thrive Project based in Paignton, who have just received £600.
The appeal fund is aimed at helping small local charities who are working tirelessly to provide help to members of our community hit hardest by the pandemic.
The Thrive Project is a community hub founded in February 2019 offering support, signposting, referrals and companionship to the vulnerable and the homeless.
Newton Aycliffe Rotary has formed a close partnership with the charity Junction 7.
In County Durham, Newton Aycliffe Rotary has formed a close partnership with the charity Junction 7.
They offer an emergency food service, as well as second hand school uniforms, adult and children’s clothing and, for a small donation, they can supply second hand white goods and furniture.
The Rotary club bought a load of food stuff for the charity, purchased with a donation which was also supported by a matching grant from Rotary District.
In Lancashire’s Ribble Valley, Longridge and North Preston Rotary have helped fund a new telephone service, Help Longridge.
Spokesman Andrew Wallbank told the Lancashire Post: “With this funding we are now able to provide a befriending and buddy services for those residents who are worried and lonely during this pandemic.”
The volunteers from Help Longridge are also delivering prescriptions and shopping to those who are vulnerable and self-isolating.
In Berkshire, Reading Maiden Erlegh Rotary have been working closely with the homeless charity, CIRDIC, dropping off supplies, including bread donated by Hare Hatch Sheeplands Farm Shop.
