The Herald helping hand community project continues

FRIDAY’S in The Herald office are normally a day where we can take the foot off the gas and start thinking about the next edition of the newspaper.

We normally have a flick through the paper over a coffee and have a chat about things in the pipeline for next week.

Last Friday, October 30, was a bit different though, we weren’t sipping a coffee or taking it easy, we were out and about around Johnston and Milford Haven as part of our community project; Helping Hands.

During the first Lockdown earlier this year, we knew we had to help older and more vulnerable people in our community the only way we could, with food, with milk, with eggs, with whatever we could beg for or borrow off of generous local businesses who, like us, wanted to help but didn’t know how to in a world of social distancing and shielding those with underlying health conditions.

So, we filled up one of our vans, normally used for delivering newspapers, with as many essential things as we could lay our grubby mitts on and we went to areas with sheltered housing, whether it be for the elderly or the vulnerable, we knew we had to help those people first.

This time around though, we could organise, we could plan and we could make sure that the help offered by the amazing people behind Pembrokeshire businesses got to those who needed it the most as soon as possible.

Behind our masks and hand sanitiser, we packed bags full and gave them out to grateful members of our community, we, like those supporting us, want everyone to know that even in the worst of times, we stand together and we help each other out, not for praise or column inches, because it’s the only thing to do when we’re all up against it.

The gratitude we could just about make out behind the masks was enough, and if it wasn’t for our supporters and their super-human selflessness and generosity then we simply couldn’t have been able to help as many people as we have.

We need help to do more, we need supporters so that our Helping Hand can be offered to as many local people as possible. We won’t stop trying to help and we won’t stop being grateful that we can help people during the toughest of times and it’s obvious from the level of support that we’re not alone.

To local businesses: thank you, thank you so very much for giving all you can to help us help others and every week this lockdown continues we will continue giving all we can so that the most vulnerable people never have to feel cut-off or alone, every little action makes a truly profound difference.