March 2022 News
Plea for a new home!
As you all now know, we have been given a deadline the 6th of June by the Bank of England to leave our current home. We urgently need to find somewhere else in the locality that is suitable. Do you know anywhere that is currently not being used, or has a short lease? Do you drive past anywhere that looks suitable?
We currently occupy 2 work rooms and 1 green room. The work rooms are approximately 10m x 17m and 15m x 8m – to give you an idea on the amount of space we have been very privileged to have, but we can be flexible of course.
“Must haves” include:
Heat, light and power
Work rooms secure and lockable, because we need to leave equipment out
7 day access
Putney / Roehampton vicinity
Kitchen / bathroom facilities (could be shared)
We would consider places like sports halls, warehousing or large storage areas, hotel outbuildings, church halls, anything like that – please do look around your neighbourhood and see if you can find anything. Parking would be nice but not essential.
If you do spot something please can you let Rosie know ASAP, and we can start the process of investigating its potential.
Headlines for the month:
The Prison Service
Rosie has continued her discussions with the Prison Service and hosted a visit from Haroon, the Industries Manager, and the Textile team at the Scrubbery. They were super impressed with our operation and achievements, and Haroon is going back to his peers to work out what can be done and incorporated into their existing programme, considering how they could work on similar lines, and what they can make. We showed them scrub hats, wellbeing bags, Linus quilts, hospital gowns, children’s pyjamas and gowns, and, of course, scrubs. They did say that they are very keen to come and make a film about us – for their “Inspirational Corner”. The aim of that film is to show inmates what can be achieved from nothing, how to make a difference to your life by starting small and incrementally achieving success, and gaining new skills. They have asked Rosie to come in person and do a talk to inmates about “the journey and taking steps to move forward” and possibly to teach, so watch this space for more info as this unfolds.
Ukrainian Crisis:
We have all been touched this last month by the terrible events in Ukraine. Rosie consulted with the Scrubbery team and then, with consent, responded to a post on Fleur Anderson’s Facebook page requesting medical equipment help. Rosie has been in touch with several people working to supply assistance, as well an anaesthetist in Kyiv, in direct need. Obviously the situation is constantly changing and priorities shifting, but we have assembled a consignment of scrubs and hats to send soon. We have held back slightly, on one hand to get a better distribution of sizes made, because currently we mainly have the smaller sizes and on the other hand because we are being asked for items to treat leg trauma. The scrubs will go to a new field hospital being set up near Lviv and to Kyiv. We have been fortunate to find a very secure route for shipping via a Ukranian national here who has been supplying aid to Ukrainian orphanages for the past eight years, using Ukrainian drivers.
Preparing the scrubs for Ukraine
Project Linus update:
This initiative is going really well – the results so far, 19 quilt tops, are on display in the dance classroom if you want to see them. This project is helping on many levels, not only is it repurposing all the small scraps of material from our scrub cutting, that would otherwise go to textile waste, but it is also reducing our storage footprint, which we are in a race to do given our imminent move.
If you have time please do come and cut some squares out – it’s really simple, the die cutting machine does it all for you – and then we can get a good production line going of colours and patterns ready for the quilters to work their magic.
We are only making the tops, and Karen is going to make the backing ready to send on to the Linus Project. Some of the backing is hopefully going to made from either the sheets and duvets that have not yet been cut or repurposed. Which will make a dent in those stockpiles as well.
Many thanks to the Community Shed, Roehampton, for helping to assemble some extra shelving, enabling more floor space, and room for more people to work safely distanced in the dance studio.
Consignment to HMP Wandsworth:
Rosie, with permission, managed to salvage and deep clean a collection of men’s outdoor clothing that had been left at the Bank premises, including boots, coats and jackets. HMP Wandsworth’s Quaker chaplain then collected and delivered them for the inmates, as they often only have the clothes they were sent down in, or when they were arrested, and if that was the summer then they have nothing warm or dry for the winter. The donation was very well received! We also gave a load of books and novels. It feels good to reuse and redistribute items, and not just throw things away.
Royal Hospital for Neuro Disability:
We are finally in a position to provide rainbow scrubs to RHND so this will be our main focus, in the coming weeks. If you can take home or come in and sew any that would be most appreciated.
Congratulations to Evie Boettcher!
Evie is one of our Duke of Edinburgh Gold Award candidates and has been volunteering at The Scrubbery for some time now. We heard that she had taken it upon herself, to raise some funds for The Scrubbery by nominating us as a deserving charity at Esher College where she is a student. She then ran a charity “donut sale” with all proceeds coming into the Scrubbery – fantastic effort Evie!
Thanks
Special thanks to Italicatessen UK Ltd for supplying cardboard boxes to ship scrubs in. Thank you also to Jo Teverson who approached Keerat at the Yellow Storage Company on our behalf, and secured a great bundle of cardboard boxes from them.
Italicatessen have been a major champion of the Scrubbery and Parish Action charities, frequently donating food for Roehampton Community Box. They deliver to the Scrubbery, where we hold the goods until Tuesdays and Wednesdays when the Community Box hub is open. Donations have included generous amounts of pasta, cheese, flour, and cured meat. They have also encouraged organisations in their network to assist and we were able to pass on 78 artisanal panettone cakes this week.
