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For the past four months, we've been running a companionship project for our Marmalade members struggling with loneliness.
It's been an incredibly tough year for so many of us, but perhaps especially those on their own. Luckily, our fantastic Winter Companionship volunteers have been on hand (well, on the other end of the phone!) to provide hundreds of hours of friendship and fun.
As the project is now coming to a close, we wanted to provide another doorstep visit, along with a little gift - just to make sure each individual knows they’re valued and important members of our Marmalade family.
What's inside?
164 members were delivered a gift bag containing a Marmalade Trust Wellbeing Guide (shown below), a signposting brochure, a packet of sunflower seeds and a beautiful narcissi plant.
Thank you's
It's been a real community effort! We are especially grateful to...
Fountain Print Brislington for being the best printers around!
Henleaze Garden Shop for providing the narcissi plants at cost price
Trinity Henleaze United Reformed Church for letting us use their wonderful Bradbury Hall for packing & distribution
Age UK Bristol for providing the 'Guide to Later Life in Bristol' brochures for all packs
Age UK South Gloucestershire for providing leaflets on S. Glos services for all S. Glos packs
Wyldwood Arts CIC generously provided the sunflower seeds
The wonderful folk at Windmill Hill City Farm who printed all the labels for the bags
Global's Make Some Noise for supporting our project
Claudine Mercer, Margaret Billings, Kate Calver, Alison Price and Rebecca Purchase for so kindly donating their time to help with packing & distributing
It's also been lovely to hear how our volunteers have gone above and beyond to cheer up their companion, including going for socially distanced walks together, enjoying doorstep fish & chip dinners and delivering extra goodies like homemade biscuits.
We've already had some lovely feedback too...
🧡 "I write to thank you for the wellbeing pack delivered by the faithful Tim. Your care through him has been appreciated by me."
🧡 "Thank you so much for the pack - really kind thought!"
🧡 "Lovely to have the doorstep visit - really nice to see them again. Loved the little plant."
Finally, a little note from our Project Coordinator, Jo: "I would like to thank everyone involved for their support in enabling this to happen. I know that the little narcissi plants are already flowering & bringing a lot of joy to our members, & I'm sure that the wellbeing guide & signposting information will offer invaluable support throughout the year ahead."
