‘Superhero’ councillor is a vaccine volunteer
BEFORE the pandemic, Ashfield Independent councillor Dale Grounds, who represents the Kingsway Ward of Ashfield District Council volunteered for the NHS as “Spider-man”.
He regularly visited children’s wards in Queen’s Medical Centre to take children’s minds off serious health conditions or just to be there when they wake up after operations.
Now Councillor Grounds has just completed his first shift as a volunteer at the vaccination centre at Kirkby Health Village. He will be volunteering there from Monday to Friday and has spoken about how much he enjoys his new role.
He said: “When the call came out for volunteers for the vaccination programme – I thought why not. I’m an NHS volunteer anyway. I wanted to do everything I can to help beat this dreadful pandemic.
“It’s great to help our residents, many of them I represent on the council, feel that little bit safer. It’s a great way of continuing to give back to my community – it’s just a different age range.”
Before the pandemic, Councillor Grounds volunteered as Spider-man for the NHS at the QMC. He got the idea after seeing his son – Reece’s reaction to him dressing up as his favourite superhero.
Reece has autism and Councillor Grounds noticed dressing up as Spider-man helped with his behaviour. He then decided to take his character to the hospital wards.
Councillor Jason Zadrozny, leader of Ashfield District Council said, “Talk about going from one superhero to another. Dale is a tremendous ambassador for our council. It’s great to see him volunteering at our vaccination centre. He is a popular figure across Kirkby and our elderly residents are delighted to see him when they arrive for the vaccine. It helps put them at ease.”