Volunteers and clients past and present gathered at Harlington’s popular Hub and Spoke Café yesterday to celebrate with an array of delicious cakes and an amazing giant sausage roll created especially for the occasion.
Amongst those there, current group secretary and café proprietor Sue Whittle (centre) was joined by three original group members – Mary, Betty and Gill – plus previous secretary Ron Smith, who said he’d “enjoyed every minute” of his thirteen years in post. Sally, once a regular group phone-holder and now a client, said how lovely it is that “If I’m stuck, I know I can call.”
Justine Hunt, from Beds RCC’s Good Neighbour Scheme Support Team, presented the group with a ‘Magnificent Milestone’ certificate. She also presented a ‘Special Achievement’ certificate to Mary Rutherford who first suggested setting up the group and who is the group’s longest serving volunteer.
A lifeline to housebound residents during the Covid pandemic, Harlington Neighbourhood Help kept people supplied with shopping and prescriptions, including Sharpenhoe and the surrounding area, and was boosted by new volunteers who joined during furlough and happily stayed on.
There have been some changes over the years – the group started with a pager and a notebook but now uses a smartphone and WhatsApp, and Harlington has grown very much bigger than it was back in 2000 – but the care and commitment of the volunteers remains the same.
Here’s to the next 25 years!