Next stage for Nightingale’s Rainbow
On Friday 20th August, the next key stage of the Nightingale’s Rainbow construction will be completed.
The steel which forms the central structure of the 5.5m high rainbow arch will be winched into place at Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Aylesbury, to form one of the first major Covid-19 related commemorative sculptures in the UK. It celebrates the resilience, strength and kindness shown by the communities of Buckinghamshire during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The steel arch will be covered with thousands of coloured tiles representing the good deeds carried out across the county, many of which will be recorded on nightingalesrainbow.org.uk, a fundraising appeal which benefits Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust Charitable Fund and Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity.
Messages left by the people of Bucks include
“To Maria Louise Butler & Snowy — For setting up Forget-Me-Not Post of Kindness, ensuring residents in care homes across Bucks had contact with the outside world during lockdown & beyond.”
“The committee would like to thank all members for their help in supporting local communities during this time.” — Aylesbury Town WI
“A huge thank you to all the staff at Bedgrove Junior School for hard work throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, and huge respect to all the children who have coped with the upheaval of the past year or so — we hope that 21/22 will be a normal school year full of school trips & fun with friends.”
How you can help
We want to fill www.nightingalesrainbow.org.uk with thousands of messages of thanks, gratitude and support to make sure the efforts seen across Buckinghamshire over the past 18 months are not forgotten.
Public displays of messages are planned for later this year and next year in libraries, shopping centres and popular events across Buckinghamshire.
There are a number of ways you can help.
· Tell people about the project when you meet them
· Follow Nightingale’s Rainbow social media channels and share the posts
· Suggest places in your constituency which could display some of the Rainbow messages of thanks
· Buy a Rainbow Tile and share your message of thanks and support on social media Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn
Each Rainbow Tile costs £20 and the proceeds go to support healthcare in Buckinghamshire.
“In the last eighteen months we have all had sad times — personally we have lost my sister and so many friends across the county. Both Sue and myself willingly want to support Nightingale’s Rainbow, both morally and financially.
We urge all of you reading this to support this project — to remember loved ones you have lost, those who cared for them and those who supported you through Covid-19, and to leave a lasting message online to each and everyone of them. Thank you all”
Bill Chapple OBE (Buckinghamshire Cllr) and Sue Chapple (Buckinghamshire Cllr).
