Villagers unite

THREE friends have joined forces to create a ‘Helping Hands’ social media group to support its village community.

Shelley Cross, Sarah Pitman and Kelly Ruthven set up the Barrow-upon-Soar ‘Helping Hands’ group on Facebook in early March and it now has more than 1,200 members and has supported a number of fantastic local initiatives.

Shelley said: “It was sparked from a discussion regarding not being able to find any medicine in the shops and we wondered if more people would be needing help as things were starting to spiral with panic buying.

“The idea for a community group stemmed from there and we were really lucky that it was set up and established a couple of weeks prior to the official lockdown meaning we could also get the word out there via a leaflet drop to every home in Barrow.”

Since its creation the group has set up a food bank in partnership with its local church, built up a network of village ‘crafters’ who have now handmade over 1,000 uniform bags and headbands which have been distributed to all of the Leicester hospitals by NHS workers who live in the village, organised a prescription pick up and delivery service for vulnerable and isolating residents, shared and promoted local business delivery services such as fruit & veg boxes and local pub ‘takeaway’ services.

Shelly said the foodbank initiative with the Baptist church had been supported by villagers dropping off items on their daily walks.

“I would say around 100 parcels have been delivered and donations have all been made from local villagers - one kind volunteer donated over 30 easter eggs which were originally due to be raffled at an event that was cancelled.”

And Shelly revealed the work of the group is regularly highlighted by villlage town crier David Dipple.

“He conducts regular thank you announcements in the High Street to thank our local shops and key workers. Every Thursday he makes the announcements outside his house to signal the start of the clap for carers. He also does a thank you outside the local Coop & Boots Chemist on a Wednesday afternoon to thank the key workers there, always maintaining social distancing of course!”

• Anyone interested in joining the group can search on Facebook for ‘Barrow Upon Soar Helping Hands’.

■ ‘Helping Hands’ co-founder Shelley Cross.

■ Grateful hospital staff pictured with some of the uniform bags createde by members of the ‘helping Hands’ group.

■ Ambulance crews have also received some of the ‘Helping Hands’ uniform bags.

■ ‘Helping Hands’ co-founder Sarah Pitman out collecting some of the uniform bags.

■ ‘Helping Hand’s co-founder Kelly Ruthven with some of the uniform bags.