Girls chalk names of dozens of coronavirus key workers on their house to say thanks

The gable end of Steven and Katherine Alderson’s home in Hesleden Road, Blackhall Colliery, is covered in the names of those who have continued to serve their community during the crisis.

It all started when Steve, 48, and 41-year-old Katherine were looking for something to do while on lockdown at home with daughters Kayleigh, 15, and ten-year-old twins Olivia and Alexis.

They came up with the idea of a visible tribute to the key workers in the village.

“We live near a nursing home with a lot of key workers and the local street has a lot of people who can’t get out, so we decided that we were going to decorate the house with a rainbow that people could see as they were passing or from their houses,” said Katherine.

“Steve started drawing a large rainbow with chalk and I said we should do a recognition wall. We asked friends on Facebook for the names of workers and it went mental.

“The phone nearly blew up. So we started putting the names up and it just went on and on.”

The family were determined to recognise everybody who is doing their bit to help the community: “There are about 85 names which we have chalked up on the wall,” said Katherine.

“It is not just NHS workers, we have got care staff and even the girls in the Blackhall Co-op, a variety of people, just as a little ‘thank you’.

“We have just been absolutely inundated, and we honestly can’t believe how much people have been enthused by it and have loved it.”

Steve spent two days adding names to the walls of the house – ‘the chalk dust was everywhere ‘ – and only stopped when he was forced to give up after running out of wallspace and materials.

“We could not put everyone’s names up because we ran out of chalk and we ran out of room,” said Katherine.

“In the end, we just had to say, ‘I’m sorry, but there’s no chalk left’.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you