Twickenham renamed in honour of Bristol volunteers
Three members of Avonmouth Old Boys Ladies RFC saw Twickenham Stadium named after them for a day in recognition of their volunteering during lockdown.
Lucy O’Brien, Breeze Palmer and Matt Williams delivered hundreds of food parcels and hampers to vulnerable people shielding, as well as frontline workers including the NHS and the local fire brigade.
Their surnames were printed on the exterior of the south stand as part of a National Lottery campaign recognising grassroots sport community workers and volunteers.
"It began when we saw this post on Facebook with a little old lady in the toilet roll aisle without anything on the shelves,” said Breeze. “We just couldn't stop thinking about it, we just dreaded how people would be able to manage, when we were perfectly able and still couldn't do anything. We started off with the idea of a few boxes for the elderly in and around the local community as we all live close together. Then we put it out on Facebook - and we got inundated with donations of food.”
Breeze, who is both a parent and a player at the club, added: "We had multiple girls delivering food parcels, we had parents that volunteered and drove for us, other parents printed off and delivered leaflets for us, up to 4,000, so that people - particularly the elderly - knew about us and that we were able to deliver for them.
"Our ward covered five different areas, it expanded and expanded, and anybody and everybody who could support us with donations, money or even just their time was invaluable.
"Loads of the mums were making up masks for us or giving us PPE. All the stuff we were doing went on our social media pages and we had so many people volunteering. We had so many people involved that we had to draw up a list and rotate it so that everybody could have a go with helping us.”
Above & beyond
As their success grew the group started providing hampers for the emergency care teams in the ICU, visiting fire stations and paramedics.
"We had people making cakes to raise extra money and we let off 50 balloons one night for those people who had lost family members to Covid who couldn't have a funeral. It was completely community-based.
"We helped people fill out forms as well - a lot of people who needed to register for food parcels hadn't been online or even had a mobile phone before.”
Another member of the team, groundsman Matt Williams, says: "We did a lot during the pandemic, at one point we hit 40-50 deliveries a day. Without people volunteering and helping, we wouldn't have been able to do all that. We also handed out certificates of achievement for kids, of which we did nearly 800, hand-posted to them to try and cheer them up a little bit. Over Easter, a lot of parents couldn't get out and about so we delivered 400 Easter eggs and sorted out for some computers for kids who need help to complete their homework during this time.”
Player, coach and safeguarding officer Lucy adds: "Without that first amount of National Lottery funding we had, none of this would have been possible.
"We could never have expanded, we wouldn't have been able to have our ladies team or as many juniors as we do now. In turn, that has helped us be there now for people. We were highly appreciative then of the National Lottery funding, and now it's got us to where we are now.
"Without people buying The National Lottery tickets, this would never have happened. We wouldn't have been able to do what we've done during the pandemic without that.”
