Gingers Q to S

Security Officers: From checking to bombs at the airport, to over night rounds in a shopping centre Security Staff have been working through.  As the ones who often have to turn away people who think they have a right to enter, or have to break up fights, Security staff are often on the receiving end of abuse.  When the person you are dealing with could be shouting a virus at you as well as threats this can be a very daunting job to have - Thank you all

Sewers: Hospitals found themselves short of scrubs and theatre hats, and staff wanted scrubs bags so they were able to undress and easily transfer their uniforms to washing machines without shaking infections around their homes.  People wanted masks to reduce their own likelihood of catching COVID19, and to protect others in case they had it but didn't know: an army of volunteer "scrubbers" took to their scissors and sewing machines and between them made tens (if not hundreds) of thousands sets of scrubs, scrub bags and hats and masks.  Sewing machines were dusted off, patterns studied, fabric cut and stitched and hospitals presented with the kits their staff needed!  Thank You Scrubbers!!

Shopping Deliveries:  the supermarkets struggled with people emptying the shelves while they hoarded groceries but very quickly managed to change their online portals to cope with the huge numbers of people who didn't want to risk going to the shops.  Behind the scenes people shopped for us and loaded it onto lorries and others came with a cheerful smile to bring the shopping.  Thank you!

This Ginger was a message to all of us - we should simply Stay Home and Stay Safe!

Swan Radio is our local community Radio station.  They were not allowed to access their  studio, but managed to cobble together broadcasting set ups at various homes so they could continue to broadcast  from 8am to 10pm all week.  They kept us up to date with volunteer groups and their provisions,  and had on-air chats with organisers of on-line and socially distanced activities.  Thank you!

Gingers T

Teachers found themselves in a whole new working pattern: some at school with a group of children of mixed ages and mixed ability who had one thing in common: that their parents were key workers so the children needed minding during the day, and others who were working from home sending out class notes and arranging online lessons and zoom lessons, phoning families to see how they were getting on, and delivering food vouchers where families had previously received free school meals.   This is not what they have studied for and they have to work out the best way to cope given the children in the school, the families involved and their own family circumstances Since then they have taught children in 'bubbles' trying to bring all the children to the same level.  Thank you all for doing such a great job

Town Crier: We don't have an official Town Crier, but we have our lovely Henry who does his best to make sure no one misses what is going on in the villages.  Twice a week he does a round up of all the activities he has seen or has been made aware of and summarises them on Facebook.  Having run the Ginger Auction on FB I know how complicated it can be to keep track of all the threads but he's been doing a great job!  - Thank you Henry

Tractor Drivers - this Ginger represents all the farm workers and other food providers who carried on sowing and tending and harvesting so the nation could carry on eating!  Thank you

Truck Drivers moved food and other essential items from where they were made or manufactured to where they were needed: almost everything we have bought has been delivered to the shop or the warehouse by lorry, and if truck drivers had ceased working  the country would have come to a standstill.  Thank you

Gingers U to Z

Vet staff and Animal Rescue staff  didn't really have much option to not work - their clients need them and cant manage without them.  Apparently there was a big spike in abandoned pets at the beginning of lockdown, and other people who have relied on support in walking their dogs etc have struggled during lockdown.  Thank you to vets, vet staff and staff at animal rescue charities

Vicars and Priests couldn't carry out their usual pastoral duties but many of them knuckled down and taught themselves how to deliver on-line services and daily reflections while keeping in touch with their flocks by email and phone, and shouted conversations through closed windows.  The gradual re-opening of churches first for private prayers, then socially distanced services and then weddings has involved a great amount of reading guidelines and creating risk assessments, all while dealing with an increased number of funerals and mourners who want to send off their loved ones with a service that has not been possible.  Thank you for all that you do

Waste Collection crew

These guys were a relatively new contract when lockdown hit: they were still learning their routes, were supposed to keep away from each other but share a cab on the waste truck, had staff off due to illness and self isolation but still appeared each week with a smile to take the bins.  This was the first Ginger I made!  I think they do a great job - thank you!

Wraysbury & Horton Voluntary Care has existed in the villages since the early 1990s.  Generally it ticks along helping a few people who need meals provided or a lift to the Doctors, but in times of crisis it steps up and supports a large number of the residents.  They have been the glue that held our villages together during the pandemic!    You may not have needed deliveries of food, or pharmacy orders, may not have needed someone to call you once or twice a week just to hear a friendly voice, may not have been struggling with homeschooling, may not have reached out when the stress of the lockdown got too much, but plenty of people in the two villages have needed these and more, and have received the help they needed.  

A huge number of residents volunteers to help with the cooking or delivering of food, shopping for the self isolating, delivering medical supplies and having something to do was, in many cases, what they volunteers need to be able to cope too!  Thank you to all the Volunteers and to the WHVC team who organised everything

Wraysbury Primary School: Gingers were normally my idea or someone’s suggestion - this is one of the only “request” gingers, but when Dianne Cranmer messaged me with this request it felt absolutely right.  

Towards the end of lowdown, Wraysbury Primary School, along with others up and down the country, opened their doors to the Year 6 children.  But do you know that WPS didn’t close! Not for lockdown and not even for Easter holidays.  Every weekday the school has been open for the children of Key Workers and other eligible families. From the newsletters shared on FB it is clear the staff scheduled to be at school have taken a huge sideways step from the “old normal days” of teaching - arranging fun activities (for groups with big differences in age and ability) throughout the day while school staff at home have been keeping in regular contact with all “their” families.

So this is a Thank You to all the staff at WPS who have watched the rest of us go into lockdown and hide away while they carried on with what they do best... unquestioningly and unfailing putting the children first!  

Thank you from your Chair of Governments, from me at the Ginger Factory, and, I’m sure, from every parent in our villages (I know you don’t wear the uniform T-shirts but it was my best shot at identifying you all 

Wraysbury World Tour: This Ginger is to thank Natalie for all the great activities she has organised during lockdown.  We had the Great Safari Trail where lots of us put out soft toy animals and information sheets during the first weeks of lockdown for the children who were going on daily walks .  She then organised us to put out displays of a country (hence the World Tour) and this was followed by Sammi the caring snake who has (as I write this) well over 600 painted stones to form his tail.  Children of all ages  have loved these activities: as have a great number of adults.  Thank you Natalie

Wraysbury Matters was set up two years ago in order to improve mental health awareness in Wraysbury.  The organisers quickly realised that mental health would  take a dip for many people having to isolate themselves during lockdown and they wanted people to be aware there was some one they could talk to.  They sent out suggestions on how to cope, and how to help others who were not coping well.  They put regular positive posts on Facebook and put 'happiness' posters around the village.

They worked with WHVC - the two groups quietly organised letter drops to almost every house in the two villages, manned phone lines, organised and trained volunteers and got on with helping wherever and however they could.  Thank you WM team

And we finally reach the end of the alphabet: Z is for zoo keepers!  This was requested by several children who were very concerned as to whether the animals were being looked after.  We assured them they were, but they might be missing their visitors!  The Zoos are also seriously missing the income the visitors bring in: the animals have to eat even if there are no ticket sales. Thank you to all the Zoo staff

See https://www.justgiving.com/zsl to help London Zoo and Whipsnade Zoo

We are all in this together PAGE

NOW A PAGE

Natalie, an amazing lady in one of the two villages has been coming up with some fab ideas to keep the children safe but also having fun during Lockdown and beyond.(and to be fair, the adults have loved it too)

Wraysbury Safari Park

The Safari Park was first but didn't really have a logo - but I have made an orca and a giraffe

 

Wraysbury World Tour

Next was the World Tour and I made these

Sammi the Caring Snake

This was followed by Sammi the caring Snake - nearly 30m of decorated stones

Scarecrow Festival

For the end of the summer holidays we had a scarecrow festival - I didn't go for the life size version that others made but instead entered a Ginger scarecrow

And at the end of October ...

Wraysbury and Horton Pumpkin Trail

was arranged

so a few Halloween pumpkins were stitched (with an experimental Santa too!)

Santa

Two local residents did a Santa Dash on Christmas Eve - Santa in the back of a pickup truck.  Photos were few and far between but it was clear that the village Santa didn't look like my Ginger Santa, so I made another version especially for Greg and Doug (no room to add the pickup!)

At the start of 2021 we went into our third Lockdown, and the schools were mostly closed again.  Children needed to burn off energy (and adults needed to burn off Christmas calories) so Natalie introduced

Keep Moving

 A boring poster to start with but the idea was to colour in a section for each bout of activity: making gingers counts doesn't it?

The first three Gingers:

Gingers Technical PAGE

The Gingers were initially created by a friend of mine, Sue, who trades as Memories in Thread.  I bought some of the designs from her, for others I tweaked her design, and in some cases I designed a completely new Ginger (using design skills I had learned from Sue when she used to teach the design software)

They are designed on the computer and then transferred to an Embroidery Machine.  the stitching is automated but the operator (me) needs to rethread the machine for each new colour and trim the fabric off after it's been stitched.  It's great fun to watch but the skill is probably more in the design work.

This video shows a ginger being created in time lapse photography

And I made a video showing a little of how the software works, but it is too big to embed in the blog, so here is the link to it:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oAQS1NDvd0_bYFVO2muJBHoRdEGcrqlC/view?usp=sharing

What People Thought PAGE

NOW A PAGE

I wondered if people would think it was a strange idea - making Gingerbread people in May and June certainly isn't normal!

The responses have been amazing - I even received "Thank You" Gingers!!!

This stone was painted as part of the "We're all in this together" Sammi the Caring Snake, but never made it to Sammi - thank you Anna

These were made by a young Ginger fan in Horton, Thank you A

I received lovely messages from Wraysbury Primary School

A lovely group of ladies who messaged and sent me my very own Ginger!!!

"A BIG THANK YOU

On the eve of Benta's grand finale for her Ginger Folk, I wanted to say a big thank you on behalf of everybody who has enjoyed her handiwork for everything that she has done.

Needless to say, as always in our villages, this thank you has been organised by a team of people:

Alex

who did the needlework,

Lesley

,

Dianne

,

Carly

,

Lora

and me.

So thank you, Benta, and here's your very own Ginger xx"

And Natalie and her boys who made me this great edible ginger Thank You

And Christmas 2020 saw more Gingers from the community:

Any More Gingers? PAGE

 NOW A PAGE

Since creating the Key Workers and the Local and National Heroes I have made more Gingers:

The "We're all in this together" group had a Scarecrow trail, so of course the Gingers needed to take part

Long time village resident Graham Sinclair walked three marathons (and a bit) over a few lockdown months leading up to his 85th birthday, to raise money for village charities and I was asked to make him a Ginger to commemorate his achievement

Slough Windsor and Maidenhead Samaritans asked if they could have a Ginger

A few masked Gingers were made to remind people to wear their masks

and some COVID19 Gingers were made to remind us of the year we will never forget!

And then a few Ginger buildings were requested!

Christmas Gingers appeared

And a nativity set for the vicar

A variation of Santa for two residents who did a Santa Dash

And some activity Gingers for the 2021 Keep Moving Campaign

St George

National Blood Donation day

ANZAK day

Mothering Sunday

Plant Sale

International World day

Happy Birthday

Happy Easter

Logo for the  Coffee Mornings at the Old Baptist Church

A favourite teddy

St Partick's Day

St David's Day

Cookies, Shrove Tuesday, Norwegian Waffles and Chocolate Cake

Trampolining Gingers

And Cheer Leading Gingers

Library Ginger

Basketball

Talk To Me Gingers 

Chinese New Year

Snow day

Valentine's Day

Den Building

A Gnome for friends who have bought a beach hut, and and Eid Ginger (I did check with a Muslim neighbour that this wasn't too culturally inappropriate!)

 

Sweep (from Memories in Thread) and a well being bingo idea that Wraysbury Matters are running in the villages

 

To support National Sunglasses day, and National Ditch the Plastic day

 

Fort a Ginger fan due to start a new school in September 

For a young Ginger fan with COVID - no real hugs allowed so a Ginger hug seemed like a reasonable compromise

RNLI World Drowning Prevention day and Drowning Prevention week

 

The Day of The Seafarers

World Chess Day

Cervical Screening Awareness Week

National Smile Month

National Samaritans Day 

World Bicycle Day

Pride Month

World Bee Day

Will there be any more???  Probably!!!!  I am looking at sort of public announcement Gingers - we'll see how they get on!

Please feel free to contact me if you want to order any Gingers, or view recent ones on my blog http://slikstitches.com/p/gingers.html