Nantwich Buddies

Spring Newsletter

  

We are three! It’s hard to believe that this time three years ago we were told not to leave the house, couldn’t visit friends and struggled to buy toilet rolls. Well it did all happen and so did the formation of Nantwich Buddies.

 

You can read below what we have achieved in those three years and how our support has changed. You can also read why our Volunteer Coordinator joined us in those early days and why she is still with us!

 

See how we've been helping the Food Bank again and please do help us spread the word about Buddies and what we do, we're always looking for more volunteers and people who might need our help. Enjoy!

 

Three Years of Buddying

  

The infographic below shows what we have achieved in three years. Back in 2020 our huge team of volunteers were mostly focussed on relatively quick tasks such as shopping, prescription collection, phone calls and even dog walking – helping people who couldn’t get out or whose families were not allowed to support them.

 

Today our smaller team of volunteers are much more likely to be visiting people, helping to alleviate loneliness and social isolation, encouraging and helping people to get out and about and taking people to medical appointments. Our support has changed to meet those changing needs and will continue to evolve as the environment requires.

 

There are many avenues we could take such as providing support and respite for carers caring for a loved one, more social groups for different demographics (not all of our clients are elderly), develop our transport service further to offer help getting to social groups or day trips. So watch this space as we continue our good work - there is still so much to do!

 

Quizzing Our Coordinator

 Following the theory that seven is a significant and lucky number (Seven Wonders of the World, seven dwarfs, seven days in a week etc.) we asked our Volunteer Coordinator, Sara Lamond, seven questions about Buddies.

 

1.   When did you join Buddies? 

May 2020 – during the first lockdown. I had registered as an NHS responder at the beginning of lockdown but didn’t get any calls then found Buddies through Cheshire East.

 

2.   Why did you join? 

I just wanted to help during the pandemic. I was furloughed, had time to spare and was quite comfortable going out and about shopping etc. It’s difficult to believe we were queuing outside Sainsbury’s!

 

3.   What is your role now? 

I’m the Volunteer Coordinator, so I match requests for support with volunteers, log activity, keep in touch with our volunteers and generally keep things ticking over.

 

4.   What do you like most about Buddies? 

Helping others genuinely makes you feel better. It’s a proven fact and it works. We can’t solve everyone’s problems but we can make a small difference to people’s lives. Someone told me recently that Buddies had made their life worth living again – if that doesn’t bring a smile to your face (or even a tear to your eye) I don’t know what will!

 

5.   What are the main benefits of volunteering?  

I have made some lovely friends and met lots of people through Buddies. I had only lived here for just over a year before the pandemic hit (I moved from Hampshire) and hadn’t really got to know many people or the area. Belonging to the Buddies family has opened up a huge network of people and even some employment opportunities – it’s been particularly great for me as a newcomer to the area.

 

6.   What is difficult about volunteering? 

I wouldn’t say there is anything difficult because we are volunteers, so the focus should be on enjoying what we do and making it work for us. That said, it has been an eye opener for me in terms of the challenges that some people have to face on a daily basis. I guess the difficulty with our kind of volunteering might be that we can’t fix everything for everyone but we do what we can.

 

7.   What would you say to anyone considering volunteering? 

Do it! Even if you’ve got limited time to spare. It’s really rewarding and you meet lots of lovely like-minded people. With Nantwich Buddies you don’t need to commit to a number of hours per week or regular times, it’s left entirely to the volunteers to make it work for them. It could be a 10 minute phone call once a week or a 3 hour round trip taking someone for a hospital appointment – and anything in between. 

Buddies To The Rescue

We were delighted to help at the ‘Drop Off and Go’ donation day for Nantwich Food Bank in November 2022, but after receiving two tonnes of donations, the storeroom was chockablock!

 

So we were very happy to go back this year to help with sorting and dating donations to make room for the general running of the storeroom.

 

It's an incredible operation and quite an eye opener to see how many people are supported by our brilliant Food Bank.

Read more about Nantwich Food Bank

Come and Join Us!

 We're a busy bunch of volunteers and are always looking for new members to join us, so please do help us spread the word and tell people to get in touch.

 

There are so many benefits to volunteering such as belonging to a group and meeting new (and often fascinating) people! There's more about us on the Nantwich Buddies website or anyone can ring for a chat to find out more.

 

01270 440 750

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