For much of the first half of 2020 the entire world was in some form of lockdown, an unprecedented event which was necessary to save lives and prevent the coronavirus from tearing through the population of the countries’ most badly affected.  It is a saga that is still playing out now, and may be a prominent feature of our lives for many months to come.  The humble ladder played its part in lockdown, in mostly positive ways.

 

There will always be people desperate to flout the rules and do their own thing, and for three people in Newport this meant using a stepladder to access a closed park at the height of lockdown.  The park in question neighboured a hospital that, at the time, held the highest number of coronavirus infections outside London.  Although these people didn't mix with any other people (because the park wasn't open to the public), their actions defied the lockdown rules in place at the time and angered many people who were abiding by those same rules at great personal cost.

 

Happily, most of the ladder stories from lockdown have been positive, especially reports of firefighters using their ladders to visit friends and co-workers in hospital, when they weren't physically allowed inside.  Using the aerial ladder truck, a Miami Dade firefighter rose to the right floor of the hospital building to see his colleague through the window and pass on a message of support.

 

In Amsterdam, firefighters lent their ladder to musician Marcel Fokker, so he could perform a concert for care home residents.  They have since repeated the feat to bring smiles and music to more care homes around the city, as lockdown restrictions there meant no visits to care homes was allowed.  This has been very hard for the families of people being cared for in this way, and for the residents themselves, so some music and a reminder that they have not been forgotten went a long way to restoring morale.  A trumpet playing firefighter, in Rio de Janeiro, has also been bringing music to the residents of the city, driving the truck to different areas each day and serenading locked down residents to cheer them up.

 

Ladders have also been used for fundraising, with one man from Jersey aiming to climb the height of Everest on a ladder in his garden.  Peter Picot finished his simulated climb on April 23rd and managed to raise over £4,000 for the Salvation Army for his efforts.  He got the idea one day while cleaning out his gutters and vowed to climb 1,000 metres per day to help the charity out with their Covid-19 work. 

 

Londoner Tim Knott also had to incorporate a ladder into his fundraising efforts, for which he was planning to run an ultra-marathon to raise awareness and funds for mental health charities.  He had been planning 12 events over the year, all physically gruelling feats to raise money, but the lockdown stopped him from completing a triathlon and ultra-marathon, which is a 51 kilometre race.  He was due to take part in the Offa's Dyke Sea 2 Summit ultra-marathon, so instead ran laps of his garden and performed over 2,000 ascents of a ladder to recreate the climb portion of the race.

 

We hope we don't have to face another lengthy lockdown, but if we do, we know how we can put ladders to good use for raising fund and morale.