Chieveley Parish Council award three women the status of ‘Honorary Citizen of the Parish’ in recognition of pandemic community help

Three Chieveley women were each made an Honorary Freewoman of the Parish at Chieveley’s annual parish meeting on Tuesday, April 12.

Nicky Ager, Sarah Hutchison and Helen Singleton were awarded the status of Honorary Citizen of the Parish in recognition of their outstanding service to the community during the Covid pandemic.

The three women came together at the start of the pandemic and led a group of volunteers to help around 120 vulnerable people in the Chieveley community.

When presenting the awards, Chieveley Parish Council chairman Mike Belcher said: “I would simply like to say thank you on behalf of the whole community to all of the volunteers and in recognition of the massive contribution that Nicky, Sarah and Helen made, to present each of them with an Honorary Freewoman of the Parish award for exceptional services to the community.”

In response to receiving the award, Mrs Ager said: “It was an absolute honour to receive the award for myself, Sarah and Helen, but actually it was a massive joint effort with all the volunteers that contributed during the pandemic. They were absolutely amazing.

"We had a massive team behind us that were hugely supportive.”

The volunteer group that Mrs Ager, Mrs Singleton and Mrs Hutchison organised carried out a variety of different schemes to help those in need during the pandemic.

The things they did included collecting groceries, collecting prescriptions, gardening, transporting patients to medical appointments, checking in on people and having regular chats, cooking and delivering meals, making cakes and walking dogs, just to name a few.

The three women also set up a food exchange, and received donations of food and essential items from people across the village that could go to those who needed them most.

In a statement written during the first lockdown in May 2020, the ladies said: “We trust that by us all pulling together, we have further united what was already a fantastic community and have lessened some of the worries, fears, and uncertainty that many amongst us have felt.

“We think it is now fair to say that we can remove the “probably” from the statement, ‘Chieveley is probably the best village in the world.’ Thank you all again for being just truly amazing.”