Jane Smith
Items made by volunteers in our area during Lockdown 1.
MAG stands for Mutual Aid Group. Most of the local volunteer groups that were started solely in response to the pandemic ( as opposed to existing community groups) took this naming convention. The Mutual Aid movement actually have a political stance ...however...the National Mutual Aid Facebook page was the ONLY national register of community volunteer groups that was available during the first month of Lockdown 1 so when people were scrambling to get help for elderly parents far away from them....this was really useful & so most of us used this naming convention....but we were strictly apolitical & always made that clear.
Jane Smith
Laundry bag story
On March 31st, I saw a local Facebook message from a lady requesting fabric remnants to make laundry bags for emergency workers.. She was ridiculed & was so obviously hurt by that, that I PM Ed her to find out what she was trying to do.
She explained she was an ex community midwife & wanted to make laundry bags for some of her colleagues who were boil washing their uniforms &wanted to be able to strip off, put their uniforms in a drawstring bag & throw the whole lot into the washing machine.
I put an appeal on our MAG Facebook page for 100% cotton bags, dimensions etc. The response was amazing...by April 2nd 100 bags were made . We also had people from Scotland, Chesterfield & Southampton asking if they could do this for their nurses. Lindley MAGpicked this up also. &started a whole laundry bag hub for HRI nurses.
Our final count from the Golcar area for this “run”was 154 bags but, we also collected enthusiastic makers from Marsden, Slaithwaite, Dalton, Scapegoat Hill, Marsh & Lindley....enough to kit out all the community midwives connected to HRI & Calderdale....all laundered & pressed, collected ( at safe distance), “ quarantined” in a plastic. Box for 5 days & delivered April 7th.
Ear Protectors
One of our volunteers working in the NHS suggested ear protectors for the nurses, a small group of local crafters were already on this & had been crocheting these individually for friends in hospitals. They switched to a “ production line” for us.
By the end of April, the Golcar MAG volunteers had provided: 413 laundry bags, 118 ear protectors. To:
Calderdale & HRI midwives - laundry bags
Field Head Surgery - laundry bags, ear protectors for all staff, connection to scrub hub
Outlane surgery - laundry bags, ear protectors for all staff, connection to scrub hub
New St Surgery - ear protectors
Crimson Manor care home - laundry bags, ear protectors for all staff, connection to scrub hub
Knowl Court care home - ear protectors
In addition to contributing laundry bags to the HRI appeal.
These were provided at speed, in every instance, when we had a request it was fulfilled within 2 days.
The makers were awesome. What was really touching was how people used beautiful fabrics & the care they took with them.
