The Scrub Hub!

Lenka Kupkova, a costume cutter at York Theatre Royal was furloughed at the beginning of the first lockdown earlier this year. We have been very grateful for the support of Lenka and her Scrub Hub team….

Lenka busy at work making costumes for Cinderella

‘I noticed there was a call for volunteers that could make scrubs. A group in London established ‘Scrub Hub’, a network of voluntary community groups. Scrub Hub acted as a portal for local hubs across the country to be contacted by NHS workers in their area that were in need of scrubs.

We started fundraising and ordering fabrics, copying and posting patterns and other materials. Some days I spent 10-14 hours on the computer replying to emails from doctors, nurses, care workers and volunteers.

It felt like a very positive thing to be involved with and it felt really important to our volunteers to be useful, it was a great way of dealing with the helplessness many of us were experiencing.

I’ve had so much help from the theatre costume makers from Leeds, who got involved in the first weeks of the hub being activated. We also had a lot of support from many home sewers who did a fantastic job of keeping up with the demand.

In total there was around 40 volunteers helping with sewing and distribution. I’ve met some fantastic people both virtually and in person, and the whole experience had a much needed uplifting effect on me. I’m very grateful to everybody that went out of their way to help!

Shortly after the government announced that face coverings were to be compulsory in shops and on public transport, Lenka received a large donation of fat quarters from Aldi and we were very grateful when she chose to shared these with us for making face coverings.

Richard Thornton, Communications Director at Aldi UK, said: 

“We’ve been touched by the kind-heartedness and community spirit shown by Scrub Hubs across the country, and wanted to make a small gesture of support to thank members of Scrub Hub Leeds for their selfless efforts. We hope this will encourage them to keep up their fantastic work.”