Care army strikes at the heart of the Southern Downs

INSPIRING stories from residents moved to do more during the coronavirus crisis.

TOGETHER FROM AFAR: Warwick neighbours Ava McGregor and Sophie Burt stay connected while social distancing.

THE pressures of a global pandemic are forging strong new bonds in the Southern Downs community, turning strangers into friends in the fight against coronavirus.

Strict social distancing regulations rapidly changed lives by closing schools, shutting down businesses and isolating the vulnerable for months on end.

But not all changes have been bad.

Amid the mounting challenges of a struggling small business and homeschooling children, Warwick woman Nicole Burt is finding the cure to the chaos is kindness.

“Kindness is the only thing you can control,” Mrs Burt said.

“You can’t control what’s happening, but you can be kind to the people around you.”

In her quiet Warwick street, children send letters to each other instead of playing outside, families buy each other groceries, and elderly neighbours have become surrogate grandparents.

“We are closer now than ever before,” Mrs Burt said.

“When you only have the people around you, you have to build those connections.”

Over Easter, her young family made cut-out bunnies for the street, placing them on the footpath to bring cheer.

“We tried to become a little more creative, a little more inventive, in the way we connect with others,” Mrs Burt said.

“A lady at the end of our street had just had an operation and she was feeling very sore and sorry for herself.

“She told me she hadn’t wanted to step outside, she didn’t want to face all the doom and gloom, but then she walked past our sign and it gave her a smile, a bit of a spring in her step.”

Stevie Brennan with Ava McGregor and Ruby Brennan take photos with the sign made by the Burt family.

The experience in her own community prompted Mrs Burt to reach out when Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk called on Queenslander to create a “Care Army” to combat the isolation of the coronavirus.

“It’s important because here, we all check on each other, but not all streets do,” she said.

“The business is slow, I have the spare time, so I can help someone who doesn’t have a supportive neighbourhood or a family.

“Whether it’s a phone call or a grocery run, we want to be as helpful as we can be,”

The Burt family was not alone.

Within 24 hours of the government’s plea, more than 8500 people registered to help.

One volunteer was North Branch resident Natalie Han who saw the call-out as an opportunity to give back to a community who so warmly welcomed her.

“I’m an immigrant, I’ve only been here five years, and in that time Australia has given me almost everything,” Mrs Han said.

“I have a good job, as a personal carer, and I have a good community here, so of course I took the chance to give something back.”

Mrs Han said registration was simple, and she’d since been in touch with at-risk residents in surrounding areas who needed groceries delivered.

It’s what she hoped someone is doing for her parents, in Thailand, and her father-in-law, in New Zealand.

“I think of my father-in-law a lot. We couldn’t go visit him so he had to celebrate his 91st birthday alone,” Mrs Han said.

“Everyone needs to help each other, and I like to be able to do something for my neighbours.”

Natalie Han said she jumped at the chance to help her community.

Stanthorpe woman Leanne Haynes has also been cut off from her elderly parents, who live on the other side of the border.

But it is the isolation of those on the Southern Downs that prompted Ms Haynes to volunteer for the Care Army.

“I was stood down from my job at the Stanthorpe Health and Rehabilitation Centre, where I worked with elderly clients,” she said.

“I know a lot of them lived on their own, and they’d have no contact with anybody at this point in time.

“If I could help in any way, by connecting with them on a phone call, or taking them to do their shopping, even just accompanying them on a walk, I want to do that.”

The government is yet to contact Ms Haynes with volunteering opportunities, but in the meantime she does what she can.

“The centre has called to check on some of the clients we’re concerned about, and I try to put little positive messages on social media for them, reminding them we’re thinking of them, and to do their exercises,” she said.

“I know we’ll eventually come out of this and on the other end I hope we all stay connected,” she said.

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