June News
This is our first anniversary of being at the Bank of England – June 20 to June 21. What a year!
This newsletter is a wee bit delayed because of unforeseen circumstances. As many will now be aware we had to move out of the squash courts with incredibly short notice (three days) because the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club (AELTC) required the premises to distribute uniform for staff for the Wimbledon qualifiers. At Rosie’s request Fleur Anderson, MP, arranged a meeting at The Scrubbery, with Ulrika Högberg, Head of Community Strategy at AELTC to show what we were doing as Wandsworth Community Champions, and explore options. However, AELTC proved disappointingly disinterested and intransigent, despite their requirement to use the building being extremely short term. Fleur also attempted to find alternatives for us, contacting all the faith leaders in Wandsworth, some of whom came forward with offers of space, but our cutting table was too big, though we were grateful for the support. Philippa Davies, Head of Conferencing Services at Roehampton University, who also wanted to help but didn’t have sufficient space for our purposes, did offer unlimited space to AELTC for their temporary requirement as they already were hosting the junior tennis players. However, AELTC wished to use the squash courts and refused all alternative offers from the Bank of England and Roehampton University.
Many thanks to those of you who turned up at short notice and put in a Herculean effort to move what was essentially a small factory, and special thanks to the Bank of England for making additional space available to us in the main building, at some considerable inconvenience to themselves. Paul Buckingham and Jo Blythe were extremely supportive and we thank them and the Bank of England for their continued help which we couldn’t manage without. Despite all this distraction we still fulfilled our deliveries without delay!
If you are visiting the Scrubbery over the next couple of weeks extra security is in place, and you absolutely must arrange your visit in advance. Anyone who turns up unannounced will be turned away by AELTC security. Please also allow for the fact that the parking arrangements are different during the tournament, and you may have to park some distance away from the Scrubbery building which is now in the main Grange building. Bear with us while we reorganise ourselves in the new space, things are understandably somewhat higgeldy-piggeldy at the moment.
The postscript to all this kerfuffle is that the squash courts are now vacant, having been used for less than one week by AELTC…
As it seems to be a popular feature, so we thought you might like to meet some more of the machine team: -
Sharon Bourke:
Sharon’s 20+ year career has been in the world of theatrical costume design, working at world renowned venues such as the Royal Opera House in London, she has worked on the Oriana cruise ship for P&O, as well as doing seasons for The Royal Ballet, and English National Opera. Currently she is working on the Lion King for Disney. She has also managed the onsite wardrobes for music concerts – amongst her big names would be Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj where she was responsible for the London appearances alongside the team of designers and wardrobe staff. Sadly, she has been furloughed since the pandemic shut down the entertainment industry. In order to keep herself busy (and sane) she started sewing for a group in Sheen, making scrubs for care homes and doctors. Her friend Penny introduced her to the Scrubbery, and we have benefitted from her expertise ever since. She is one of a limited number of volunteers who has her own overlocker as well as sewing machine. Currently Sharon is doing a pattern cutting course at college for her City and Guilds Level II qualification one day a week. She normally works from her home but appreciates the opportunity to pop over to the Scrubbery to drop off and collect and catch up with folks.
Jos Sampson:
Jos has sewn for herself and family all her life – she initially went to college in the Isle of Wight and it was part of the curriculum, so she picked up good techniques early on. However, her career was in the dental industry as a practice manager mainly in London. She used to cycle to work and admits to having been knocked from her bike at least five times during that time.
She now likes to keep busy, and the Scrubbery has kept her focussed and given routine to her days. She likes to produce one garment a day. She sews in the morning and then goes out in the afternoons – either on her trusty bike or meeting friends for walks. Unlike many, Jos says she has grown to like working with the rainbow material because “it stays put, it doesn’t move and lines up nicely”. She is currently turning out three kits per week. When not sewing, she also runs her husband’s art publishing company – Merivale Editions – named after the Very Reverend Charles Merivale who was the driving force behind the very first Oxford Cambridge Boat Race.
Liza Rogers:
Liza has been a member of the Barnes W.I. for a long time and has always sewn using her grandmothers old Singer sewing machine which she plans to relinquish to her granddaughter one day. She enjoys making scrubs and is another who unusually likes the rainbow material, because she can always tell which side is the right side, which is not always the case for the other materials! Initially she found it harder to do the sewing in the winter because of the low light and the use of artificial light, but again with the rainbows that is much easier too. Whilst she felt competent to sew, she did take a yellow top home to help her with the first one and phoned for help on the tricky bits – both of which she found invaluable thank you all for that! Liza wanted to say that she thinks Rosie is incredible and Lucy is delightful.
It transpires that three people from her street are all volunteers so now they meet up on a Friday and walk in together. Liza’s family have been instrumental in setting up a neighbourhood WhatsApp group to share info and help each other within their local streets. She has found that very rewarding with the mutual support out there. Covid 19 has been a positive in some ways – she has met new people and neighbours and learned new skills.
Maggie Deighton:
Maggie is a trustee of the Friends of the National Archives in Kew. Originally from Canada, she started volunteering there and ended up being asked to become a Friend. She has become the go to person for their Zoom life – especially so since lockdown began. Their audience is spread far and wide and covers many continents so managing the Zoom platform has been crucial to carrying on during the pandemic. She has been here in the UK for 45 years. She had a career as a proof reader, mainly for business literature. She has been a Company Secretary for a Charity as well. Maggie believes Rosie is an inspiration to us all and admires Lucy for her patience with everyone, and general good humour.
Maggie was not born to sew – she was given a machine for her 21st birthday but it spent most of its life in the dark interior of her cupboards. She saw an appeal for scrubs and decided to break it out. Her husband kindly serviced it for her and adapted it to the UK voltage, so she was good to go. She doesn’t want to change it for a newer model because it is mechanical and there is no software to fall foul of! She loves the fact that the kits are designed so cleverly – all the parts cut to size, and marked up, all she has to do is sew them together. She is now so confident that she can sew and listen to the radio at the same time – she finds it good for her soul and body – some of it is physical and some is cerebral. It ends up giving her a good feeling about life – she is contributing something as well as personally benefitting.
Sylvia Wilson:
Sylvia has been a Putney resident for ages and came to us via the St Mary’s Church there. She used to work for ICL in the borough, for over 20 years. Her role there was to look after all their ex-pats dotted around the globe. Her colleagues used to call her Lady Penelope from International Rescue for her abilities to resolve all crises. The in-pats were also similarly helped and established over here by her. She started out in personnel and administration working for the likes of BT and PWC. Having retired she began working in the Cancer Research charity shop in Putney three or four times a week. With that and her sewing for us, plus her 5 grandsons ranging in ages 11 through to 22, she fills her days to the maximum.
Sylvia wanted to mention Gerry, our retired taxi driver who delivers kits all over London for us, and what a boon he is. A very big thank you to him for all his deliveries and collections – it makes it so much simpler for her to fit it all in. The Scrubbery has saved her during lockdown – she is so impressed with Rosie and all she accomplishes. Lucy deserves a special mention too because she is so responsive, so pleasant – “she is absolutely marvellous”.
Sue Kapoor:
Sushma tells us that she has always been able to sew clothes since childhood, however her life, family and career took over – the family run and manage their own restaurant on the Upper Richmond Road. Her son who manages that now, told her about the Scrubbery and that is how she came to us. Sadly, her hands are not always her friends now, so she is limited in what she can do, but whilst she may not make many scrubs anymore, she is busy making smaller items which are easier to handle.
She works from home where her son organises her projects and the items are delivered to the restaurant and on to the Scrubbery via Gerry or her son. Brilliant system!
She works twice a week at the restaurant still, from supervising the chefs to cooking herself. In her heyday she was concurrently managing two or three restaurants up in town, but now her son, and the grandchildren have taken away some of that burden for her, as they all work in the family business.
Lucy Ruben:
Lucy is one of our newest recruits. She was introduced by Raphael (Rosie’s son) apparently he is always talking about the Scrubbery and his mother’s work. Lucy and Raphael were both in the same choir at Cambridge. She studied music there and graduated in 2019. Her intention was to go travelling before starting work, but we all know what happened in 2019, so sadly that didn’t happen. She does have her first teaching job lined up for a September start this year which is fabulous. In the meantime, she has been filling her time sewing. Having learned from her 80-year-old grandmother, she has been reconnecting with her during lockdown trying to solve sewing issues as they have arisen – quite a difficult thing to do over the phone, but they manage. Initially Grandmother was the teacher, now as Lucy develops her skills, they are teaching each other. Rosie and her band have been sharing new skills like overlocking and the tricky bits in the kits. Her previous experience was as a teenager sewing bags and simple things, not clothes, so with Rosie’s help she feels she is getting back as much as she is putting in. She is learning to do it the professional way, the proper way – no short cuts or corner cutting will do now.
What have we been up to this month:
Our biggest political supporter, MP Fleur Anderson, has been busy advocating our cause and highlighting the issues around PPE and scrub provision. She has been on Facebook Watch talking about the Putney Scrubbery getting the message out to as many people as she can. Thank you, Fleur, your support is empowering.
We have shipped masks to Age Concern, Suttons Women’s Centre, and the pastoral team at the Parish of Putney.
Grateful staff at Sandown vaccination clinic
The wellbeing bags have gone out to several teams at Newham Hospital. These bags went to the Critical Care Outreach Team, Maternity Bookings and Tayberry Ward. Newham have a programme of Psych and wellbeing assessment working through their hospital teams and we will send more bags to those they flag up as needing extra care in the coming couple of months.
We have delivered scrubs to :
Greyswood Practice Vaccination Hub
Walthamstow Vaccination Hub
Battersea Arts Centre Vaccination Hub
Wandle PCN
Princess Alice Hospice
Milton Keynes Paediatric OT Child Development Centre
Riverview Park Surgery
Gravesend Alliance PCN Vaccination Centre
DAGDOC
Sandown vaccination clinic
Queen Mary Hospital mass vaccination clinic, Roehampton
Here is some feedback that we have received, all on the back of your hard work :
“Hi I’m a junior doctor at Whipps Cross and just picked up one of the care packages you made. Thank you so much, they are lovely. I can’t believe somebody hand made those drawstring bags, it’s so beautiful. Anita“
Health Records team at Newham, would like to thank @thescrubbery for donating their wellbeing gifts. It was really appreciated by all the team for a challenging time this past year it has been for everyone in Trust!
All your hard work is being appreciated by those in the most need.
Donations / Thank you – there are always so many generous organisations and people to mention:
Nisha Thiru at Community Champions is at the top of our thankyou lists this month – she has organised for deliveries from Soap and Glory, Champneys Bubble heaven products, Boots No 7 radiant results cleansing balm, and 144 KitKat bunnies – all for the wellbeing bags, so much appreciated by the recipients and us. It is especially important now to keep up the good work as we all start to return to our pre-Covid routines, the focus can easily slip, so thank you Nisha!
Balmonds are right up there – yet again we were overwhelmed to receive another very generous donation from them - this time 50 full size pots of Skin Salvation – thank you so much.
Kew Dental Care – they very kindly sent us six boxes of mini toothpastes, which are the perfect size and dimensions for our wellbeing bags. Brilliant.
Alex Voice is a regular Amazon shopper, with an eye on fabulous colouring books and pencils. Thank you for your continued support.
We don’t want to forget all you kind people who have bought through the Amazon shop or dropped off care packages – it really makes all the difference to the front line doctors, nurses and care teams.