Vital equipment and tasty treats donated to key workers

Date published: 28 April 2020

Hopwood Hall College, Expert Safety and Mike Goldrick Blinds have all been busy contributing vital goods and treats to key workers.

Safety supplier Expert Safety has provided a local HC-One care home with individual carer packages, whilst furloughed staff members from Mike Goldrick Blinds and Curtains in Heywood have been volunteering their time to sew scrubs for Scrub Hub Bury, Oldham and Rochdale.

A representative from Expert Safety said: “We are honoured to be able to donate carer care packages to say thank you for all the hard work they are doing.”

Melanie Caffrey, who typically works as a manager for the Heywood family firm Mike Goldrick’s, has organised cutting and sewing of scrubs for the NHS alongside other furloughed staff members.

The volunteers have cut over 80 patterns for scrubs, which are being shipped to machinists isolating at home through the Scrubs Hub Bury, Rochdale and Oldham movement, and have made around 15 sets of scrubs set directly to the NHS.

Melanie said: "We’ve closed due to the government’s guidelines on non-essential businesses and it seemed a shame to not help when we had the equipment just sitting around doing nothing. We have a WhatsApp group for the girls at work and most of them jumped at the opportunity when I asked if anyone was interested in volunteering their time.

"I'm hoping we can volunteer our time and open up each day until we can go back to work. We also have a few volunteers coming in, so I hope we can expand our production and get as many scrubs to the NHS as we can."

Through Heywood Rotary 2020, Melanie has also been volunteering her time for other local causes.

Mr Goldrick said: “Melanie is a true champion of the town. She is pushing the ideals of the new rotary club making us all proud of her tireless efforts of service above self.”

Additionally, Hopwood Hall College’s engineering team in Middleton has been creating visors used to protect NHS workers using an on-site 3D printer, and donated materials from Hobs Repro and Regray Textiles.

Kieron Duggan, Electrical Engineering Technician at Hopwood Hall College, said:“It’s great to be able to use our facilities and resources in this way. Having access to this industry standard equipment has allowed us to create the visors, a much-needed form of PPE for our beloved NHS. 

“This equipment allows for solutions to real world problems and this is something we like to promote to our students.”

Packs of disposable aprons, large liquid hand soaps and 12 boxes of non-sterile gloves were also delivered to the hardworking staff at Springhill Hospice in Rochdale by the college’s art and design team, and a number of hand-made chocolates were presented to key workers at Royal Oldham Hospital.

Catering students had made the sweet treats for an event that had to be cancelled, so it was decided to use the goodies in order to show appreciation to the staff in the A&E department.

Julia Heap, Principal and CEO of Hopwood Hall College, said: “We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to help and support the key workers in our community during these uncertain times.

“These donations are our way of saying ‘thank you’ for all the hard work they do in such challenging circumstances.

“We believe it’s important to offer our support and show our appreciation, especially since a large number of our students will go on to become the key workers of tomorrow.”