THE Big Christmas Get Together team is appealing for ideas for an alternative ‘Covid-secure’ event that could be held this year.
The annual Christmas Day event – which would have been celebrating its 10th anniversary this year – would normally provide a free Christmas lunch and festive celebrations for around 140 Frome residents who may be alone for a number of reasons. However, because of Covid-19 restrictions, this year’s event will be unlikely to go ahead as normal. But organisers are determined that an alternative event be held in its place – but they need the community’s help and ideas.
Organisers say, “This Christmas would have been the tenth year of the Big Christmas Get Together (BCGT) and at around this time, we start to think about planning and getting an organising committee together.
“This year is obviously very different and to have a large communal gathering is most likely not going to be within government guidelines or safe. But of all the years to come together as a community, this is probably the year of most need.
“The people that come to the BCGT are often isolated and lonely and our Christmas lunch is an opportunity for both participants and volunteers to be part of a very lively and special day. Lockdown has been hard for many of those people and has left them with heightened fears and anxieties of being out and about with people. They need support to feel reintegrated into the community.
“The thing is that the BCGT isn’t so much about feeding people on Christmas Day it’s about really pulling our community together, and integrating a really diverse range of people, ages, socio economic circumstances etc.
“It’s a real leveller of people and is as important to the volunteers, as well as the participants. It’s also about acknowledging the amazing local businesses and store keepers that have supported it every year. That human connection is such an integral part of it and we just can’t think of a way to capture that this year safely, especially as most of our participants are vulnerable
“So this year what could we do? Your answers and suggestions could help us think of a way forward.”
If you have an idea, email the Big Christmas Get Together team at: fromechristmas@ gmail.com
