Every June charities, community groups and national organisations take time to recognise the vital difference volunteers make to their local community during Volunteers’ Week. Here at Daventry Volunteer Centre we were delighted to be able to open our doors after many months and invite volunteers from across our projects in for a lovely afternoon tea from our New Street Cafe and for a much needed celebration.
Although lockdowns, rules and restrictions have varied and impacted the way people can volunteer throughout the year the passion and dedication displayed by our volunteers to help others never once altered.
For our Happy@Home befrienders the restrictions meant they had to make the drastic change from face-to-face home visits and companionship to keeping their distance and picking up the telephone. Some also joined our amazing group of COVID-19 emergency responders and helped deliver countless prescriptions, bags of shopping and food parcels to those most affected by recent events. This desire to step forward and support others allowed us to reach out and help people who really had nowhere else to turn with tasks such as transport to hospital appointments, dentist trips, sending international parcels to help keep families connected, garden clearing and rubbish removal – all with a smile and acting as a vital link for people shielding to the world around them.
Our Clean and Green volunteers continued to keep Daventry beautiful and fight the mountain of used masks that started to appear around the town centre, while our Timebank members and Café volunteers supported each other from afar.
So to all of our volunteers and to anyone who has given their time to help their community over this challenging, difficult and at times uncertain period – Thank You! At a time where everything seemed to be pulling people apart you were the glue that helped hold people together.
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