I am delighted to announce that Nick Bolton, Sue Willmott and Louisa Henderson have been awarded the Wealden Hero Award this week.
At the beginning of the pandemic, Nick, the owner of The Buxted Inn, used the premises as a community hub. He coordinated a team of approximately fifty local volunteers, who covered the whole of the parish and delivered food and prescriptions to vulnerable individuals and households who were shielding. The team also provided a dog walking service and phone calls to chat and regularly check if people were in need of anything else.
Sue and Louisa were a major part of The Buxted Inn Volunteer group, helping the team deliver almost £100,000 worth of shopping along with medication to 120 households within the villages around Buxted. Sue did the supermarket shopping run almost every day, putting her own health at risk to ensure the elderly and vulnerable in the community were looked after. Louisa gave up her time to deliver informative leaflets and to work in the Buxted Inn to help pack, organise and ship out shopping to the elderly and vulnerable.
The Buxted Inn took every precaution to ensure that any equipment and goods were sanitised, and all volunteers wore disposable gloves. If you require their help, please contact the group on 01825 733510 or email [email protected].
The Buxted Inn has now reopened its doors to customers and is part of the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme. You can book a table here: https://www.thebuxtedinn.co.uk.
Many thanks and congratulations to Nick for bringing together such a wonderful project and to Sue and Louisa for bringing the community spirit to the village and for helping hundreds of residents along the way! You can support the Buxted Inn now by booking a table and enjoying some delicious local food and drink!
The Wealden Hero Awards are kindly supported by Uckfield FM, Kent and Sussex Courier, Sussex Express and Hailsham FM.