If there is one positive we can take from these unprecedented times, it is the feeling that community spirit is once again shining bright in our local communities.
Every Thursday, we have witnessed people up and down the country come out of their homes and clap in support of the NHS and other key workers.
It is this support for the NHS that has led to staff from Redcar & Cleveland College putting their skills into production to make donations to two local hospitals.
It has been a crafting time working from home for childcare course leader, Fiona Ker-Rowley who has been making scrub bags and mask clips in her spare time.
‘‘The idea came from my daughter who had seen online that the NHS were looking for donations of scrub bags and it all really developed from there,’’ said Fiona.
It wasn’t long before word spread that Fiona and her daughter were making the bags and within a few days they had received numerous donations from neighbours.
Fiona said: “We really wanted to help the NHS. We wanted to give something back, so we started off making the mask clips and then moved onto the scrub bags. The neighbours soon found out about what we were doing, and they began donating any spare material that they had.’’
‘‘It became a familiar sight within the road to see neighbours approaching the house with bundles of material under their arm before ringing the door bell and quickly retreating to maintain social distancing. It has been great to see the community spirit and to be able to donate these pieces of equipment to The James Cook University Hospital, along with a batch of freshly baked cakes.’’
College staff have also been putting their skills to the test in the name of community spirit in the engineering department.
The team were approached on behalf of the University Hospital of North Tees to see if they were able to produce face visors for front line NHS staff. After a night spent online researching the design, the 3D printers at Redcar & Cleveland College were soon programmed to begin production of the face visors.
‘‘Once we had the design for the visors agreed, we set about with production of the visors as quickly as possible,’’ said Neil Bowen, Head of Department for Construction, Engineering and Service Industries at the College.
‘‘The engineering team has been able to produce over 50 visors which have been donated to the hospital and we are continuing to produce these for further donations in the future.’’
‘‘It has been a great for the team to be involved in this project and we are proud to have been able to play our part in the fight against this disease.’’
In addition to donation of face visors, the College’s construction and engineering departments have also made additional donations of PPE equipment to The James Cook University Hospital in Middlesbrough.
