Lending a hand in Quedgeley

After the call for volunteers to help with the water distribution went out, I telephoned a few WIs to ask for their help on this. Members of Glevum WI helped out in the morning and the evening sessions, and Vice-Chairman May and I joined members of Frampton on Severn WI in the afternoon. As you can see, a couple of WI husbands joined us too - thank you both. We worked alongside Severn Trent employees, a couple of plumbers who had been brought in from South Staffordshire, City and County Council staff and Debbie Llewellyn, City Councillor for Quedgeley and her family, all of whom have spent hours in Tesco car park this last week!

It was actually quite fun helping out and gave us a new opportunity to see how things are. It could still be several days before much of the tap water in the county is drinkable, so this water distribution will continue for the foreseeable future. Chedworth WI have offered to help out next week and perhaps your WI might consider lending a hand? Any offer would be greatly appreciated to relieve the people who have been working non-stop for over a week now. In just over four hours we gave out somewhere between fifteen and twenty pallets of bottled water and were pleased to see how responsible people are when it comes to taking only what they need.

Pam, Frampton on Severn President, explained to Mums that boiled bowser water is better for their youngsters than the bottled water, much of which has high sodium levels. We read the labels carefully so we could ensure that families with babies and young children took home the lowest-sodium brands.

A bonus in the form of a visit from Dr Tim Brain, Chief Constable, in the afternoon. He arrived to thank everyone for their community effort and spoke highly of the generous spirit throughout the county in the last few days. As head of Gold Command, the multi-agency committee which organised the operation to get the county through the crisis, he has done a wonderful job of keeping everyone together.