AMAZING volunteers who have continued to give their time and energy to Melksham Community Support have really stepped up for the second lockdown.
Phillipa Huxtable, Age Friendly co-ordinator said, “Our volunteers have been incredible during the recent lockdown and have done just over 200 extra jobs for people needing support with shopping, prescription collections and requesting friendly phone calls.
“The majority of these jobs have been for people we haven’t helped before and all the regular support we’ve had in place for some time has still been covered by our volunteers. The second lockdown has been increasingly difficult for many people who have struggled with the longer evenings and cold weather and we have had a marked increase in the number of friendly phone calls we have been doing. Our volunteers are so good at keeping people’s spirits up and helping them to be resilient; a regular chat can make all the difference to someone on their own.”
Asked about the reasons people have for volunteering Phillipa explained, “We have had some great feedback from our volunteers who get involved for many different reasons such as ‘being part of something good’, ‘using my time usefully’, ‘giving back to my community’ and ‘doing what I can when things are so difficult’. Whatever their motivation, volunteers are clearly enjoying volunteering for Melksham Community Support, with several volunteers clocking up over 150 completed tasks since March!”
Phillipa highlighted the benefits for volunteers saying, “Volunteers have enjoyed meeting new people and some great friendships have grown between volunteers and those they have been supporting, which is fabulous for our community as a whole and a great step in the right direction to making Melksham an Age Friendly place to live”.
The Age Friendly team are also running their Christmas dinners project for people unable to be with family or friends this Christmas and will be introducing volunteers cooking an extra portion to someone nearby needing some festive cheer. Full details on their website agefriendlymelksham.org.uk
