June 15, 2020
I think it's fair to say it has been a very strange few months for all of us.
When the pandemic first began we were completely thrown, especially as a small social enterprise whose main focus is engaging with our community. Our first instinct when lockdown began was to temporarily shut down like many other businesses did, we turned off our sales channels as we were unsure what the postage situation would be and cancelled all our upcoming events as we knew they wouldn’t be able to go ahead safely for the time being.
However, there is nothing like strange situations to get the mind whirring with possibilities.
Toni’s first instinct was to make masks, but as they were a controversial topic at the start of lockdown we were unsure the best way to go about this and whether it would have value to our community.
We also looked into creating online tutorials to keep everyone entertained and crafting during lockdown.
Then we crossed paths with the Nottingham For The Love Of Scrubs group, who had just set up as the regional wing of the National FTLOS group and were making scrubs, headbands, laundry bags and ear savers for NHS facilities around Nottinghamshire.
They were inundated with requests from local hospitals in vital needs of supplies. Due to our workshop space at 38 Carrington Street and the amount of volunteers who jumped at the opportunity to help, we took on one of their requests for 1500 headbands.
From that our relationship with FTLOS grew and we quickly became their central hub to support their distribution and collection of donations, supplies and completed items around the city.
The Tiger Team has really come together during this time and it is amazing to see how a situation that could have separated us, has brought our community together!
From volunteers sewing from home to help us fulfill requests, to our wonderful ladies (and John) who have been coming down to the unit 4 days a week like clockwork to ensure we can support Frontline workers to the best of our ability.
We are now in a time of change, as we take on more responsibility to support the Nottingham FTLOS group, and continue to make items to support our frontline.
With the guidelines changing all the time, we eventually decided that now is the right time to produce face coverings and have begun to make these, both to donate to frontline workers and sell to members of the public wishing to buy masks.
We decided to sell them on a Buy One Give One basis so that we could raise some funds to contribute to our increased supplies costs.
It looks like things are only getting busier for us, it is wonderful to be heading in such a positive direction to support our community even in such strange and unfamiliar times!
With our volunteers working isolated but not alone to the frontline workers placed in vulnerable positions daily, we are working to our core aims of helping people to help themselves by building skills and confidence through our projects.
For information on how to request free masks if you are a frontline worker please visit our Facebook Page: facebook.com/TigerGreenTextiles
Facebook: Tiger Green Textiles
Twitter:@TigerGreenTex
Project Director: Toni Jarvis – toni@tigerprojects.co.uk