Guest blog post by Joanne Croxford and Melissa Russell, Gothic Valley WI (Middlesex Federation)
A wonderful gesture to
counterbalance a disaster - members of the WI have donated their time and love
in the shape of handmade ribbons and hearts to decorate the area surrounding Grenfell
Tower.
The idea was born after we
attended the peaceful protest alongside survivors of the tragedy which launched
the Justice 4 Grenfell campaign. It was there, walking shoulder to shoulder
with our community and those directly affected, that the call for the WI's
history of coming to the aid of those most vulnerable in their society was
heard at its most clear.
At this point, we were
volunteering a lot of our time to the community's effort to support locally and
sharing this on our social media pages which resulted in many WI members from
far and wide contacting us to ask how they too could be a part of the movement
to heal Grenfell's community.
It was too early to ascertain
how WI members could practically support Grenfell's residents, so we did
exactly what WI members do best and decided to get knitting/crocheting to
support the #YellowRibbonForGrenfellMissing campaign which has emerged with the
yellow ribbon, the internationally recognised symbol for the missing, being
worn by locals and hung in the area surrounding Grenfell.
We were
compelled to make an appeal on social media to fellow WI members to do the same
and mobilise their best crafting efforts - expressing the urgency for donated
handmade items to ensure that the community felt the love and support in the
immediate aftermath of this terrible tragedy.
Members had less than two
weeks to get making yellow hearts and ribbons and the response was truly
heartwarming. Homemade hearts and ribbons began pouring in from all corners of
the globe ahead of our decided date of 3rd July to hang all contributions
directly next to the Grenfell site. Members from the #hearts4ldn group were in
touch, too, who had already been involved in making hearts as a response to the
Manchester and London terror attacks for members of the public to take with
them for the public to take with them from the sites of as a gesture of love
and support. We combined forces and the envelopes began arriving filled with
love in the truest form in the brightest of yellow.
On 3rd July we came together
with representatives from both #YellowRibbons4GrenfellMissing and #hearts4ldn
with other local volunteers to hang the amazing efforts of our fellow WI
members outside the Notting Hill Methodist Church directly next to Grenfell
Tower.
What happened next was
literally one of the most humbling experiences we have ever experienced. Locals
emerged from their homes, hugged and cried with many of us with the greatest of
thanks to all WI members for their gesture of love and support. Twitter and
Facebook have been alive with messages from locals praising our efforts and
representatives of those directly affected have touched base to show their
gratitude directly, too.
What's next? Locals have
invited us to increase our efforts and continue to decorate the area, using the
power of yarn to connect the wonderful community centres through locally which
have been pivotal in providing much needed provisions for Grenfell's survivors.
Never one to deny a challenge, we are appealing to WI members all over the
country to take part in any way they are able to raise awareness around those
still missing from Grenfell in the form of more handmade donations or by
spreading the word that the memorial exists and urging members to visit.
We are planning to begin a
‘freshen up’ of the memorial so will be returning to the site monthly to see
that new donations are added and those weathered replaced.
All we ask is that knitted donations
are created using synthetic yarn to respect certain religious faiths in their
belief of representation of living matter.
If you would like to
contribute to the initiative, please email joannecroxford@icloud.com or m-j_russell@hotmail.com
We would like to add how very proud we are that members of the WI who have thus far been involved have done exactly what we do best - binding a community in turmoil with true gestures of love and gratitude.
