“Thank You Lunch” held on Yorkshire Day to thank all our wonderful vaccination volunteers!

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Vaccination volunteer marshals from across Nidderdale and the Washburn Valley came together at a “Thank You Lunch” organised by Nidderdale Plus Community Hub on Sunday 1st August at the Memorial Hall in Pateley Bridge.  Over 50 of the 90 volunteer marshals who helped at the mass vaccination sites in Harrogate and Ripon were able to attend and enjoy a fabulous, COVID-safe, afternoon-tea-in-a-box that had been freshly made by the Nidderdale Way Cafe at Studfold.


Helen Flynn, Exective Director at Nidd Plus said, “Now that the mass sites in Harrogate and Ripon have closed we did not want to lose the opportunity to thank all our wonderful volunteer marshals who came from all over Nidderdale and Washburn Valley to help in the current crisis.”  Here is an excerpt from the speech that Helen read out on the day:

Thanks to all of you most of all for your courage, selflessness, good humour, dedication and hard work.  We can all be proud that we stood up and said we were ready to help in this enormous national effort to overcome this pandemic which has been killing people in unacceptable numbers and crippling the country. 

I am sure we will all remember this period of time as a time we made new friendships — when most people were forced to live in isolation — and remember with gratitude the positive difference volunteering made to our own lives—particularly our mental health.”

The Yorkshire Health Network who had oganised the mass vaccination sites in Harrogate and Ripon had sent this message for the volunteers:


On behalf of all the staff at Yorkshire Health Network I would like to extend our thanks to every single volunteer from Nidderdale Plus for everything that you have given to the Harrogate vaccination programme at YEC. I don’t think it can be emphasized enough the positive impact that volunteer groups like Nidd Plus recruited had on the running of the programme and truly, we could not have done it without you all. One of my colleagues recently said “COVID certainly is a leveller” and, while this is true and everyone was impacted in some way by the pandemic, you chose to spend yours volunteering your time and patience to a fantastic cause and that is testament to your characters. It may seem cliché but I am sure you will look back and be proud of what you were part of – I know I certainly am and it was a pleasure and an honour to stand by such a great group of people. I look forward to seeing more of you in the community in the next months and years. There is still plenty to be grateful for despite the pandemic and I hope you enjoy your afternoon because you deserve it.”

Nidderdale Group Practice had also sent this message to share with volunteers and gave a box of Betty’s biscuits to each of the volunteers:

 On behalf of Nidderdale Group Practice we would like to reiterate our sincere appreciation for all the kindness and hard work of the Nidderdale Plus team and volunteers.  We would much rather have been here today in person but we would have been very unpopular with the team at the practice if any of us ended up self-isolating thanks to the ping-demic.   The coming together of the Nidderdale Community has been such a positive legacy of these very difficult 18 months and we are especially grateful for all the help with the various vaccination clinics and help with patient transport etc.  We really hope you enjoy the party and we will toast you in our absence.


Nidderdale Plus volunteers are still supporting the vaccination effort by providing volunteers to the clinics that are taking place at the Memorial Hall in Pateley Bridge currently, which are being organised by the pharmacy in Pateley Bridge, and members of the pharmacy team were also at the lunch and gave their thanks to the volunteers.  

We always welcome new volunteers!  Just get in touch with us.

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