A stitch in time to honour the frontline
WHILE frontline workers are rightly being hailed as heroes all over the world at present in view of the Covid-19 pandemic, a frontline worker of a different kind took up duty with Enniscorthy Gardaí recently in the form of Garda Ted Bear.
Gda Bear is a teddy bear mascot that was crocheted for the members by Helen Quinn-Devereux, from Davidstown, and the gardaí are not the only frontline workers to be acknowledged by Helen in recent weeks.
Speaking to this newspaper, she said the idea to give ‘recruit’ Gda Bear to the gardaí came from her son, Lucas.
‘Lucas came up with the idea of sending him to the gardaí and the kids couldn’t believe it when the gardaí contacted them to thank them,’ said Helen.
The gardaí sent back photos of Gda Bear ‘on duty’ carrying out tasks like manning the phone, taking up position at the public desk and even taking to a patrol car.
While Helen has always loved knitting and being creative, she took up crocheting during the current period of isolation but her creations are incredible.
She has acknowledged all frontline workers including nurses, doctors, post-office staff, bin men and the gardaí.
She also crocheted teddy bear outfits for her local priest and retired British soldier Captain Tom Moore, who achieved international recognition for his charity fundraising in the run-up to his 100th birthday, through which he raised £32.79m for charity.
Helen was full of praise for the gardaí in Enniscorthy, who she said had delighted the children with their response.
‘They invited the kids to go in to view the station when everything returns to normal,’ she said.