Your community spirit knows no bounds

Necessity, as the old saw has it, is the mother of invention and I continue to be much taken with the degree of invention displayed across the country during the coronavirus crisis.

On the odd occasion that I have ventured out of my home, there has been a distinctly dystopian sense of surrealism as I tread virtually deserted streets, with people very obviously giving each other the widest possible berth.

However, reading The Oban Times has been revealing the lengths folk go to in order to help others in our communities.

Last week’s paper reported upbeat stories across a variety of areas, including a COVID-19 fund set up on the isle of Luing to help vulnerable residents and the online efforts of community midwives to assist pregnant women.

Then there was the tale of gifts given to staff at Benderloch’s Etive House Care Home as a thank you for their efforts. The staff were said to have been overwhelmed by the generosity.

There were also other accounts of the various ways in which people have been showing their appreciation for the NHS workers, in addition to the Thursday night 8pm Clapping for Carers initiative. Among them were Teresa Russell ringing the old St Columba’s Primary School bell and Innes MacQueen playing his bagpipes on Luing.

Oban lifeboat volunteer Leonie Mead has come up with the simple but ingenious idea of creating ‘blue hearts for the NHS’ that people can download and display anywhere but especially in their windows to let health service workers know they are appreciated.

There are countless other schemes and ideas people have come up with to show their gratitude to the NHS staff, emergency services and key workers, and to find ways to help the elderly, vulnerable and isolated among us.

It has been the strangest of times but the care shown for each other has been humbling.