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ACT OF KINDNESS DAY

On Wednesday 21 July, many PRIMIS employees participated in LSL’s Act of Kindness Day. Here is an overview of the fantastic ways they showed support for family, friends, neighbours, good causes and charities. From baking and making a blood donation to gardening and litter picks, they did our pride proud!

ICE CREAMS IN THE SOLIHULL OFFICE

Gill Hamlett-Hill and Caroline Cartmell bought ice creams and lollies for the Solihull office, using their Euro winnings.

LITTER PICK AT BRUETON PARK

Kate Lindrea, Sarah Schembri, Liz Wilkie, Chris Wake and Kate Marsh met at Brueton Park in Solihull for a litter pick. The group collected several bags of litter, helping to keep the park nice for everyone to use and safe for wildlife and dogs.

LITTER PICK AND CAR WASH AT THE SOLIHILL OFFICE

The TMA team did a litter pick and car wash at the Solihull office. Well done to:

  • Ali Duffield
  • Amy Payne
  • Earl Gardiner
  • Heather Jeffery
  • Katrina Ostrowski
  • Linda Verrier
  • Lois Jefferies
  • Louise Evans
  • Rob McCoy

SUPERVISION AND TRAINING OVERVIEW

Together the team:

  • Filled 11 charity bags with high quality goods
  • Made 4 donations to foodbanks
  • Donation two car bootloads of items to good causes
  • Mowed 5 lawns for other people
  • Contacted 7 elderly neighbours for a chat

NICOLA LYTTLE

Nicola gave blood for the first time, spurred on by the Act of Kindness Day.

RONNIE MARSHALL

Ronnie Marshall put the bins out for all of his neighbours in the cul-de-sac.

MARCUS GLEAVE

Marcus Gleave spent the day digging out a trench for his 84 year old neighbour, so he can put a BBQ and a gazebo up.

DAVID BIRD

David Bird offered some generous dog treats from his wife’s business, on the back of Trisha’s fundraising for Emma and her new Cavapoo.

PAUL WALTON

Paul Walton truly embraced the spirit of the day when it inspired him to do something to cheer his 89 year old Mom up. Paul tells us that:

“She is very outgoing, loves to be out and about and will talk to anyone! You can therefore understand how difficult the last 18 months of lockdown has been for her and whilst I do her shopping every week etc. and speak to her regularly, it’s not been easy to keep her spirits up.

I have been conscious that my mom’s back patio has been in need of some TLC for some time, but fitting a task like this in has been difficult.

I took her to the garden centre a few days ago to buy some plants, the first time she had been out and about for 18 months and she loved it.  After hands and knees slab scrubbing in tropical heat and some planting and pruning my Mom is delighted with the results.

Some of the plants have an emotional attachment, following the death of my father 11 years ago and so they have been rescued and hopefully made happier!

This has lifted both our spirits and hopefully is a first step back to normality.“

STEVE HEDLEY

Steve Hedley met up with his friend’s 85 year old Mam who he hadn’t seen since long before lockdown. He took over some nice sunflowers and lilies, they enjoyed a coffee and a catch up.

GUIDE DOG SPONSORSHIP AND DONATIONS

Clare Sarginson sponsors guide dogs and has sponsored about 25 dogs to date. Her current sponsored dog is called Coco. Claire’s latest act of kindness was donating some books to Wood Green Animal Shelter.

AMARDEEP SAUNDH

Our newest ASM, Amardeep from the Pre-CAS team, was invited by the charity Shelter to raise awareness of the good work they do. Amardeep also raised £112 for them in the process!

IAN STEWART

Ian Stewart assisted an elderly, vulnerable neighbour who locked himself out of his home. Ian visited his house and found that the locks for the front and back doors were not working. Ian called a few locksmiths on his neighbour’s behalf. Eventually after three hours Ian’s neighbour managed to gain access to his home.

RICHARD FAULKNER

Richard Faulkner undertook a litter picking exercise and has also been coaching hurling today for his children’s team. Richard tells us he is not a natural hurler though.

GEMMA REEVES

Gemma Reeves volunteered to take a bunch of very loud and excitable 7 year olds to Weston Super Mare

KAREN JOHNSTON

Karen Johnston jet washed a drive for a housebound elderly neighbour and did a fabulous job.

DAVID WHYTE

Another gardening superstar is David Whyte, who did some gardening for a neighbours and cleaned the driveway of his daughter’s school.

LEANNE HENDRY

Back up to Scotland Leanne Hendry had a very busy day too:

“I’m Secretary for the Community Trust in my Village which we run and manage entirely as volunteers. We host groups such as Judo, Karate, Walking Football, Pilates, Scouts, Cubs, an Art Club and a Canine Club/Dog Show.

In April 2021 I offered to try and organise a new website as our previous provider was no longer going to be offering the service. With the help of a local organisation I applied for a website and we were accepted so I’ve completed several training sessions in order to learn how to create the website content as I’d never done anything like this before.

I’ve used time today to finalise the pages and layout so we can go fully “live”. I also visited the Community Centre to take some new photos for the website so we can attract more interest from community groups and local villagers and ensure the future of the Centre.

At 2:30pm, I am taking a lady out for lunch to our local Inn to say thank you for being a lovely friend since I moved to the village 20 months ago.

She has been a great support during the pandemic and kept me company most days on our dog walks ensuring I break away work. She doesn’t understand the difference she has made.

She missed out on any proper 70th birthday celebrations in November so this will hopefully be a nice treat for her.”

ALAN GRIFFITHS

Alan Griffiths helped his eldest daughter to dry out her bedroom, as his youngest had told him that her skylight was open during a storm.

COLIN KEAST

Colin Keast is another one of our litter picking champions and demonstrated care for his local environment by doing so.

DEBBIE COOKE

Debbie completed five tip runs with her Mum and helped sort out her garden by removing rubbish and an old trampoline.

MIA CARROLL

Mia Carroll kindly donated money to Dementia UK in her grandfather’s memory, he would have been 90 years old.

JOHN DOYLE

John did some gardening for an elderly neighbour, he cut the grass down the side access to the house and back garden.

TIM SEELY

Tim is another of our budding Alan Titchmarshes, he also took advantage of the glorious weather to do some gardening.

PETER BUTLER

Peter did some gardening for his wife’s Nan who is 90 and she lives with her husband who has dementia.  He cut the grass, did the strimming and cut the hedges back.

SIMON LOVELL

Simon Lovell helped prune his elderly neighbour’s laurel bush in the garden. Unfortunately he also disturbed some pesky critters in the garden and sustained several bites – what a trooper!

IAN GIBSON

However, even acts of kindness sometimes are viewed with suspicion as Ian Gibbon will testify when he told us:

“I collected the recycling and refuse bins for five neighbours, dropped a bag of clothing at the local charity shop and on the way home I stopped off at Sainsbury’s to buy lunch to surprise my wife with. It backfired as she thought the worse of me – what have I done? Why am I being so nice? What have I broken? I can’t win!”

MIKE CLARKE

Mike Clarke, Area Supervision Manager, had a busy Act of Kindness Day. Mike:

  1. Made raspberry and white chocolate muffins for his neighbours and friends
  2. Collected a bag of clothes ready to donate to charity
  3. Did some gardening for a relation who is an NHS nurse and needed help in her garden

SAM MORGAN

Sam Morgan helped take an old wardrobe to the tip and then went back with a box of ice lollies for all of the people that work at the tip. Much needed in this heat! Sam also baked a banana loaf ready for her children when they got in from their last day of school.

MICHELLE WOOD

Michelle and her sister baked cakes for her God Daughter’s school leavers’ fun day. The fun day nearly didn’t happen because of covid, but parents came together to put on a great afternoon. We took our cakes, sorted bouncy castles and organised games so the children could have a great last day.

DAWN GOWING, ALISON FARMER AND SAM MORGAN

We also have some fabulous cooks and bakers in the Supervision team, who were all are worthy of “star baker” with their baked goods and home prepared meals they shared with others.

ROMARNA DUTTON

Romarna Dutton is letting family and friends know how much she cares about them by sending cards to thank them for being so wonderful. Romarna also completed a skydive for Marie Curie on 8 August. Very brave Romarna and congratulations!