It's time to give a show of gratitude to those who deserve it most.
On Tuesday, Tamworth True launched its second official event Tamworth Says Thanks. The week-long callout will ask local families to create and send thank you messages for local businesses or services, and essential workers that are keeping the city running. Jody Ekert, Tamworth True group founder, said the Facebook group is responding to what they see as a need to support the mental health of the region's community. "Firstly, numerous business people and service providers have had to shut down or significantly adjust their operations," she said. "There have been some very tough decisions that have had to be made in order to prioritise the health of the Tamworth community, and we really feel for those businesses and services who are doing it really tough right now as a result.
"Secondly, we know that some front line staff have been having to deal with the anxiety of the community which in some cases is, unfortunately, manifesting itself as abuse that they should not be having to deal with." Ms Ekert said this is a great chance to reframe that anxiety and panic for people and to have them focus on what they are really thankful for. "We have a lot of people to thank that our community is still operating and we are able to access all of the basics that we need," she said. Local participants can write their thank-yous using templates designed by local artist Joanne Stead, that will be provided via the Tamworth True Facebook group, or they can create and colour their designs.
Once participants have created their message, they can take a photo and send to their chosen business or service by posting it to their Facebook page or forwarding it via messenger - the more, the better! If they choose to, businesses can print out the messages to display in their office or email to their staff as a show of community support. The official hashtags are #tamworthsaysthanks #tamworthtrue and #caremongering. The event will run for a week from this Friday, April 3 to April 10.