Rising to the challenge despite personal risk

When the history of this extraordinary lock-down is written, let the headline be not the tragic deaths nor the economic misery that resulted – but the way that, even in isolation, people made their communities stronger.

The heroism – that is not too strong a word – of our health workers can never be understated. To daily risk their lives often with inadequate protective clothing speaks volumes for every one in every role in the NHS. Beyond that, from shop workers to refuse collectors, Britain has risen to the challenge. But here in Sussex there are simply thousands of other examples of communities doing their bit for one another. Whether it is volunteersdeliveringshopping, people phoning the lonely and the elderly so they know someone is thinking of them, or even our most prestigious of employers Rolls-Royce Motor Cars handing over its fleet of cars to deliver vital supplies and using its manufacturing floor to make protective kits – all represent this county at its very best.

I have been particularly struck by the generosity of the pub industry which has seen all its establishments closed and its own business put under the most enormous stress. Twelve years ago, I recall tucking into a freshly made cheese and pickle roll and half a pint of Badger at that lovely Horsham town centre pub The Stout House.

Hall and Woodhouse had acquired it as part of the old King and Barnes estate and it would be hard to imagine a more traditional ‘spit and sawdust’ hostelry packed with British charm and oozing the warmest of welcomes. Mark Woodhouse, from the longestablished brewing family, was my host and keen to run an idea past me of establishing a Sussex Community Chest that would give cash each year to local good causes as well as encouraging landlords to raise money for groups on their doorstep who needed it most. The concept had been born in Dorset and was already proving popular.

Its arrival here was an instant success. We promoted it through this paper and we were inundated with requests for help – often very modestly proportioned. A hundred pounds here to fund an outing for a stroke association, a couple of hundred there for a pensioners’ Christmas party.

Since then, with the guidance of the Sussex Community Foundation and local pub landlords, Hall and Woodhouse has given away literally hundreds of thousands of pounds – to the widest range of local organisations. It would be easy to assume in the current lockdown that the firm might have decided to give it a rest for a year. Not a bit of it.

The Community Chest is back for 2020 bigger and better than ever – and mindful of the urgent and pressing needs that so many good local causes are facing, it is rushing through emergency grant help, too.

This is in order to prioritise emergency funds to voluntary organisations that have receivedsupportinthepasttwo years, that may find themselves in real financial difficulty in the coming months. The remaining Community Chest funds, to be distributed later in the year, will focus on supporting voluntary and charity organisations through their recovery and resilience phase.

So well done to H&W, and to everyone across Sussex who is doing their bit – great and small – to prove that we will emerge from this crisis stronger communities than ever before.