Only a few months ago it was firefighters who were our heroes, now it is our medical professionals. And when our heroes call out for help, people are only too happy to assist.
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On April 1 a call went out on the Old Bar Community Facebook page from Jody Quiring, an ICU nurse, asking for help from interested people to sew laundry bags for medical staff to take their uniforms home in, as they have to change at work at the end of their shift due to the coronavirus.
Wingham High School hospitality and textiles teacher, Beth Ripley saw the post and thought it was a great idea.
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With schools doing most of their teaching online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Beth has a google classroom set up for her year 10 students. She put up a tutorial with a video and instructions on how to make the bags for her students, if they were interested.
Four students were keen to help and asked if they could come to school to make them with Beth.
"Basically we just arranged it from there. I went out with the school credit card and bought some supplies," Beth said.
"The girls came in on Monday and made up 15 bags in the space of a few hours."
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Two more students, Amelia Hansen and Rhani-Shay Kennett, who were at school on the day asked if they could help out and were happily accepted, with proper social distancing rules observed.
Not only did the girls sew the bags, they wrote thank you notes to the nurses to include with the bags, which was a surprise for Beth.
"I left the room and the other textiles teacher was there. I came back and Julie had said the girls thought it would be a nice idea to put a card on there," she said.
It was really nice to see them all get involved and give back a bit.
- Beth Ripley
"They wanted to say thanks for what all the hospital staff are doing.
"We didn't give them any directions for what they should write on the cards. They just went for it. And some of the messages they wrote were really beautiful," Beth said.
Once the bags were completed Beth delivered them, and received a lovely thank you message from Jody in return.
Beth is taking none of the credit for the generous gesture.
"It was such a beautiful thing that the girls have done. They're the ones that have wanted to come in. I just put the post up. They're just a beautiful group of girls, in that class.
"It was really nice to see them all get involved and give back a bit," she said.