Valuing 'friendship'

Imagine you've been locked down for months and are getting sick of the sight of your own four walls. Through the letterbox comes a pack of goodies all about friendship. Tucked inside is a friendship bracelet and a fresh teabag so you can sit down and browse through the contents while enjoying a cuppa. You'd feel someone out there cared, wouldn't you? And that's exactly the feeling Anna Chaplains in Southampton want to engender.

Taking 'friendship' as their theme this month for the local version of Messy Vintage (which they call Vintage Adventure), they have been busy delivering literally hundreds of packs to people who are housebound or self-isolating during the pandemic.

Jo Ladkin, from the charity Caraway, which helps fund Anna Chaplaincy in the city tells us more:

'It’s been a year now since we sent our first Vintage Adventure @ Home packs to our original Vintage community who could no longer meet each month. They continue to welcome the monthly post containing material for them to read, reflect on, do activities and puzzles and the number we send now reaches 250 each month.

'It is a joy to be able to connect with our older community in this way and we still receive many "thank you"s from people who look forward to the monthly pack. This month our topic is friendship, something we have all appreciated even more during lockdown and we hope that through the sending of a pack each month we too are showing a little friendship to those stuck at home.'

Take a look at the Vintage Adventure pack's contents here.