Shrewsbury woman teams up with friends to launch lockdown letters initiative
A Shrewsbury woman has teamed up with her friends to launch a not-for-profit initiative to get the nation writing about their lockdown experiences.
Letters in Lockdown – the brain child of Rhiannon Collins from Shrewsbury, and friends Hannah Forbes and Alice Tuck – has been launched to encourage people to write down how they are feeling right now and have the letter posted back to them in years to come.
Inspired by Rhiannon’s personal experience of writing and receiving letters from her grandmother in lockdown, the trio co-founded the not-for-profit initiative which aims to help the population process and remember the experience of living through the Covid-19 outbreak.
Rhiannon said: “I found a huge amount of pleasure in the simplicity of writing and the joy of receiving a handwritten letter through the door.
“The process of writing a letter is very cathartic and therapeutic in itself but, specifically with lockdown, I found writing was a wonderful way to preserve what was happening and create a chance to record my own personal history.
“Writing also provided me with the perfect antidote to an endless stream of Zoom calls."
While the project is designed to help people document their feelings, it has also been created to record a moment of time in history.
Rhiannon added: “The news is dominated by the statistics of this crisis, but personal stories will be the key for others to understand the true impact of this time.
“We feel that stories of personal suffering, survival and transformation should be remembered and shared alongside the numbers for generations to come.”
Individuals or families wishing to create a personal time capsule have the option to have their letter posted back to them in one, five or 10 years' time for a donation of £5.
Once posted to the provided mailbox, the letter will then be stored and returned to the author within the requested time frame.
Delighted
Anyone wishing to partake in the project has until midnight on June 30 to make their donation.
After this date, all participants will be contacted with the mailbox address to post their letter to.
The project is a not-for-profit initiative and any money raised surplus to logistics will be donated to Campaign to End Loneliness.
Logistics manager Hannah said: “We’ve been delighted that so many people from many different types of households have already signed up to the project.
“From families who are writing letters together, to single people who have spent lockdown by themselves, we have been overwhelmed with the support we have received. In under three weeks of launching we had already sold a third of the packages.
“We have also surpassed our original financial goal which has meant that we will be able to donate any remaining funds to the Campaign to End Loneliness charity who inspire people to connect and bring communities together across the UK.”
For more information and to sign up to creating your own piece of history, visit kck.st/2ZVc24k
