LOCAL NEWS

Gerard Benjamin Rawlings "Ben"

17 May 1940-30 April 2020

It is with great sadness we announce the peaceful passing of Ben, formerly of Wendover. He will be greatly missed by his wife Ruth and his daughters. A victim of COVID-19, there will be a private funeral with immediate family only. A celebration of Ben’s life will be held at a later date. No flowers, but donations if desired for the benefit of Garden House Hospice Care may be made via www. cheneryfunerals.co.uk or sent together with all enquiries to Chenery Funeral Services, 44 Bedford Road, Hitchin, SG5 2TY, Tel: 01462 434375

Wendover Evening WI COVID 19 Acts of Kindness

In response to a request from the Bucks Healthcare Trust and at short notice, WI groups in Bucks sourced material to cut out and sew up 3000 scrub laundry bags in 2 weeks.

These were distributed in the local hospitals and some care homes.

Wendover Evening WI played their part in producing 66 bags. Margaret Currell

Thanks for the Scrub Bags

Thanks to Wendover WI for sending hand made donations to Stoke Mandeville Hospital via our GP Transport service. On behalf of Staff, we were most grateful for this touching gift. The materials were passed onto our Infection Control Team from Pathology Reception.

Thank you all. Nick Grey, Stoke Mandeville Hospital

Little Egret

This semi-resident little egret was spotted on the canal in late April by local photographer Mike Stanton, who said: "He was happy to pose for me, and even gave me a few flypasts."

WRAP Update

The COVID crisis has delayed the date of arrival of the Syrian family due to travel restrictions. The Home Office (and therefore we) are still expecting them to arrive hopefully before too long; their current living conditions are no doubt even tougher now. We look forward to welcoming them when we can. Stephen Louis, Wendover Refugee Assistance Project

Wendover Community Library Events

The Wendover Library Annual Photography Competition is still open this year. With this wonderful spell of weather and the absence of traffic, aircraft etc, it is a wonderful opportunity to take some memorable shots of Wendover and surrounding villages. There is no specific theme for the competition, just excellent photographs, in landscape format, which reflect the beauty of the surrounding countryside, towns and villages. As usual, if possible, this will be judged by the public later in the year, with the most popular photographs being used for the Library 2021 Calendar, the profits of which will go towards improvements to Wendover Community Library.

All photographs can be submitted to fowlmembers@ hotmail.com. The closing date is 31 July 2020. Photos should be landscape format and high resolution, please. All contributions are welcome.

Friends of Wendover Library are still hoping to hold the annual Library Charity Golf Day on 17 September at Whiteleaf Golf Club. Final decisions will have to be made at a later date, but if you would like to sign up - as teams (of 4 players) or as individuals - please email fowlmembers@ hotmail.com.

Vincenzo's Steps

Vincenzo Passaro is a 3 year old boy from Wendover who suffers from global development delay and low muscle tone. Vincenzo heroically walked 26 steps on 3 May to raise money for Thomley Hall Centre who care for young children and help their families feel safe and supported. Originally the family wanted to raise £500, however the people of Wendover and other surrounding towns have donated £5575 to the JustGiving page and to support Vincenzo on his journey! If you'd like to donate, please visit www.justgiving. com/fundraising/vincenzossteps

Diary Your Lockdown Experience

The coronavirus pandemic is having a huge impact on normal life and is affecting us all in many different ways. It is an event that will go down in history, and there will be much to learn from this hugely important moment in time.

There is an effort underway to document people's experiences of the coronavirus outbreak and what it’s like living in lockdown. Buckinghamshire Council’s archives team in the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies is asking local people if they would like to keep a diary of daily life during this time. The idea is that people log their feelings and experiences and, once we begin a return to more ‘normal’ life, that the diaries are submitted to our archives team. They will store these logs safely for use in the future by researchers.

If you would like to take part, it’s certainly not too late to start up. You can record your experiences either digitally or on paper; whatever works best for you. You can describe how your life is now, including thoughts, feelings, facts, whatever you think is important and you can include photos.

Contact the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies with any questions about this project by emailing: archives@buckinghamshire.gov.uk.

Wendover Girls Ditch Schoolwork for Creative Business

Three sisters in Wendover, fed up with lockdown schooling, have decided to put their book learning to use cheering up lockdown Britain. Their range of tee shirts, phone cases and accessories carries their own fun and colourful designs. They worked as a team on the creative, marketing and practical parts of the business and in May launched their website, making their merchandise available to all.

Creative Director and graphics student Piera (aged 15) lead the process of creating a range of colourful new designs picking up on the lighter side of lockdown life. “Everyone’s struggling with lockdown so we really wanted to cheer people up. They say that if life gives you lemons then make lemonade, but I don’t really like lemonade, so I thought that bright tee shirts with funny memes would be a much better idea to spread the smiles,” she said. “We called our clothing line ‘Bright Lemon’ after that idea.”

Operations Director, Helena (aged 10) said, “Our next challenge was getting our products printed and sent to people - but staying safe at the same time. We decided to use a company that prints on machines and keeps to social distancing rules, and they have been able to get up and running really quick.” She added “All our school work in lockdown seems to be ‘watch a video and fill in a sheet’, this is much more interesting than doing schoolwork without our friends or our teachers, but some of it is harder than I thought, so dad has helped us out a bit.”

Marketing Director, Miranda (aged 13) created the Bright Lemon website and has been hard at work on advertising slogans and ideas to spread the word. “The website was pretty easy to set up and we’ve tried to keep the theme of being fun and playful but at the same time being easy to read.”

The girls’ range of designs now covers slogans for social distancing, jokes about loo rolls and a cartoon series entitled “safety-pets” and there are plans for more to come. Dad Martin said: “I was amazed at how quickly they were able to get this off the ground. They’ve been working very closely together to come up with creative ideas and make them happen. I don’t think any of us would choose to be stuck at home, but it’s great that they’ve had this opportunity take the skills they’re learning at school and build something a bit more grown up.”

The bright lemon range is available at https:// brightlemonapparel.co.uk.

Recording Lockdown with Art

Both St Mary’s Church, Wendover and local MP Rob Butler are encouraging the use of art to help record this period. St Mary’s is requesting art on a 30cm/12 inch square with 2.5cm/1 inch border so it can be joined to other art; details on https://bit. ly/2yOyZex. Rob Butler MP has an art competition open to children in his constituency aged 0-16, closing date 1 June; details on www.robbutler. org.uk/art-competition.

Farewell to Ricky Ahmed

A happy welcoming smile and a kiss for a lady if you were lucky. The quality of the charity banquets he provided was only surpassed by his charm. His family were all brought up to talk to customers and they and his beautiful wife must miss him terribly. Wendover has lost a great personality and Tuesday Chums will not be the same without Ricky. We were avidly watching for Ricky to find new premises for us all to get together again. We are shocked by the news of his death! Thanks for the happy memories, Ricky. Tuesday Chums

#CarryUsThrough

Wendover designer Ben Glazier and his company Glazier Design have been asked to create stamps for the Isle of Man in commemoration of the Coronavirus period. Ben said at the stamp launch in April: “It’s an incredible honour to be called on to thank the NHS and Key Workers with our project #CarryUsThrough - a set of stamps that will replace all IOM stamps for the next month with a message of hope.”

Each stamp design represents a portion of that message of hope, and Wendover News would like to ask its readers to suggest people or organisations around Wendover that help fulfill that idea. Please submit your suggestions to editor@wendovernews.co.uk. We will assemble the suggestions into a story for an edition in the near future.

Return to Nursing for COVID-19

I retired in May 2019 at what I thought was the conclusion of a 47 year nursing career. I also made the decision not to reregister in the following August when I was due to which was a significant moment as that truly marked the end of my nursing life.

As the COVID crisis evolved the government called for retired nurses to return to help the NHS and I duly received an email from the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). I responded immediately but in truth I was unsure what I could offer as my ‘hands on’ experience was in the fairly distant past!

I was asked if I would be interested in joining a team of PPE Safety Officers supporting the wards and staff with all issues associated with PPE and personal safety. Working back in a uniform was a pleasure I hadn’t anticipated and it feels to be a lovely way to fully end my career. I work across the wards and departments checking staff have all they need, offering ‘Donning and Doffing’ training and ensuring staff have been ‘Fit Tested’ for the protective masks used in certain procedures. All new to me!!

I don’t suppose I will be doing this for long but I feel privileged to have contributed in a small way at such a time in our history. Sue Varvel

Ed. - More of Sue’s fascinating story is online at https:// wendovernews.co.uk/news/return-to-nursing-for-covid-19/