Reflections on lockdown highlight Caithness community spirit
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WICK VOICES: Doreen Leith gives an update on the work of the Wick Society's online oral history project
During these challenging times Wick Voices has endeavoured to both entertain and inform people about life in Caithness, both past and present. As face-to-face interviews are not an option at the moment, innovative ways of capturing lockdown reflections have been sought.
Sharing the lockdown reflections of members of the voluntary sector highlights the great community spirit within Caithness but also provides a source of information.
In a recent addition to the collection, Katrona Mackenzie, who has been an enthusiastic member of Wick Gala committee for many years, explained how the committee was faced with the difficult decision to cancel the town's gala week which was due to take place in late July.
However, as a group they were aware of the importance of keeping families engaged over the period of lockdown, so it was decided to focus on gala associated competitions.
Katrona describes how the window display competition held in May and the scarecrow and flowerpot men competition held in June attracted a great deal of interest and creativity and helped to brighten up the town and surrounding area.
People are being encouraged to send photos of previous galas to the committee. These will form the basis of a slideshow presentation to be shown on Facebook on what should have been the gala ceremony date.
During lockdown many people have spent time gardening. Therefore, the regular gala garden competition has been extended to accommodate many categories, which will be judged in August.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has been a learning experience for everyone,” says Andrew Mowat of the Seaview Hotel and John O’Groats Development Trust in his lockdown reflections. Andrew explains how the trust joined with Dunnet and Canisbay Community Council to form a community support network. He also highlights the support of Caithness Voluntary Group (CVG) in co-ordinating the resilience operation.
Andrew not only talks about the impact on business, staff and family but reflects on the impact on tourism in general. In particular he praises the community effort to care for the elderly and vulnerable.
He also explains how people in the community, along with trust members, saw lockdown as an opportunity to carry out improvements to the John O’Groats area with a view to making it a world-class destination.
Arrangements have been made to access funding, deliver cooked meals, collect prescriptions and deliver shopping and activity boxes as well as information leaflets.
CVG's senior development officer Allan Tait, in his Wick Voices recording, explains: "It has been a massive operation. All these groups have done such a great job to support our communities.”
He explains how he and his team at CVG co-ordinated the amazing effort of groups to support the vulnerable and shielded within the 12 community council areas of Caithness.
Arrangements have been made to access funding, deliver cooked meals, collect prescriptions and deliver shopping and activity boxes as well as information leaflets.
There have been many changes in the 72 years since the founding of the NHS in 1948 and the Wick Voices archive has a first-hand account from Ray Richard talking about her work at the Bignold Cottage Hospital.
Ray joined the hospital staff as its first secretary in 1949 and describes her first impressions of entering her office there. She goes on to explain how she used her organisational skills to bring order to the inpatient and outpatient records. In addition, she discusses the range of tasks undertaken, such as note-taking during patient consultations and the organisation of clinic and theatre lists as well as answering the phone.
Her job also necessitated the ordering of blood and the checking of oxygen cylinders required for operations undertaken by Mr Roxburgh, the resident surgeon at that time.
These recordings can be accessed at www.wickheritage.org
