Can you make a difference?
Recently, I asked you to consider how we can prepare and help our community with this unprecedented challenge of coronavirus. The response since then has been brilliant, including from West Dorset businesses who have offered to help manufacture emergency ventilators. In Bishops Caundle, Sherborne, Broadmayne, West Knighton, Beaminster – to name just a few so far – volunteer groups have sprung into action to help the most vulnerable in our rural areas with shopping and delivering food; dog-walking, collecting prescriptions, or even simply talking. But we need more offers of help. Lots more.
It’s good to see that local businesses are now organising home deliveries, joining forces and combining resources to make this happen. In my home town of Sherborne, independent shops, coffee shops and restaurants have come together to deliver fresh food, meals and more to the homes of local residents who would otherwise face difficulty, spreading what they are calling ‘viral kindness’ as they do so.
But there's much more do do... None of us know what the next few months will bring, nor what will be asked of us. If we are organised with a team of willing volunteers, we are in a good position to help as the need arises.
