The community spirit in Rothwell, Woodlesford, Oulton and Carlton is absolutely unbelievable. I’ve been blown away by the amount of local people who have contacted me wanting to know how they can help in the community during the Coronavirus outbreak. We’re so lucky to have such a caring community. It’s a surreal time and a harder one than most of us have ever known, although some of our older members of our community have been through the second world war and are valuable and experienced members of our community, they are some of the most vulnerable to the threat of this virus in our community and they really need us now.
If you or anyone you know needs help during this pandemic then here is the council hub full of useful links https://www.leeds.gov.uk/coronavirus. Over 5000 food parcels have now been delivered as part of the emergency food programme in Leeds.
The phone number to get help is 0113 3781877.
I hope you’re all keeping safe during this worrying time. We’re all aware there have been tragic losses of life through Covid-19, and that’s why we have to persevere in staying physically apart from family and friends to help keep them safe. We will pull through this and need to look after each other and especially those most vulnerable. Lots of people have already signed up. You can still register to help in the community by signing up to volunteer through the official scheme which has been pulled together by the council and voluntary action Leeds at: https://bit.ly/CovidVolunteerRothwell.
Perhaps the biggest way you can help though is checking on those people around you who may be vulnerable and/or alone and on family and friends to make sure they are ok and that someone is thinking of them. This can all be done safely whilst maintaining social distancing, the wonders of zoom and other video links have really come into their own lately.
To help those in most need we need to use the available information that the council, health professionals, Live at Home scheme and other partners already have and are organising volunteering with those who need help in a coordinated, reassuring and safe way. I’ve volunteered and am hoping that by me phoning our older people, being someone they know and trust will put their mind at ease. I can then see what they need, offer help and just have a chat and show we care as a community. If you can help there are a variety of ways to get involved and do times and days to suit you.
It’s great that the vast majority of our local people are staying at home to help save lives. It’s amazing what can be achieved when we all pull together. Everyone who is staying at home is helping and playing their part in saving lives and helping us to be able to get back to some normality sooner than we otherwise would. It could be a long haul and there is likely to be various stages of action we need to take over a long period of time to make sure we’re all as safe as possible.
It’s fantastic that there’s such community spirit here in Rothwell and it was great to take part again for the fifth week now in the clap for our carers. It was brilliant that our local scouts all proudly clapped in their scout uniform, and our daughter was proud to take part in her scout uniform. It’s great to see our young people playing their part, they are certainly going to have a lot of memories from this time! Rothwell and the surrounding villages did us proud in the support every week for our carers who have shown us through this pandemic that they are some of our true heroes in society along with all our key workers who are helping us get through these times. Thank you to everyone for all you’re doing. Together we can do this.
