A WHITTINGTON family has been showing its appreciation for NHS staff and key workers in a unique way for the past nine weeks.

Wayne Culliss and his family have been bringing the community together every Thursday night when clapping for our carers, with different-themed songs, dances and costumes on the street for everyone to enjoy.

The idea behind the performances, which have taken place in and around Boot Street, was to show appreciation for those working on the frontline in the fight against COVID-19, while ensuring people feel involved within the community they live in.

Wayne explained: “We were quite eager to do it – we’ve been doing it for nine weeks now and we’ve done a different theme every week.

“My family is involved in putting the decorations up and we have some additional helpers.

“This Thursday will be the last one – it’s hard to keep coming up with different themes!

“We wanted to encourage a good community spirit, and support the NHS as a community for everything they’re doing.

“A lot of people are at home by themselves and might not be going out, so we wanted to try getting them involved and make them feel a part of the community.”

He also believes the weekly event will have helped to cheer people up during what has been a difficult time for many.

“I think it’s been quite hard for people,” he added. “And one of the things we’ve lost a bit over the years is that community spirit and knowing your neighbour.

“We wanted to bring that back and make people feel part of a community and not just being a house on a street.

“The response from people has been fantastic – we had a card from a key worker who told us she looks forward to it every week and it had made her cry.

“We’ve had nice messages from all over as far as Wrexham and Wolverhampton.”

The group has big plans for one final performance this Thursday evening, which will mark the 10th week of Clap for Carers.

Wayne said: “We want to go out with a bang this Thursday – we’ll have a singer and a three-wheeler ‘Delboy’ van, so we want to make it a big variety for everyone.

“We would like to thank everyone who has been involved in helping us every Thursday, and to everyone who has supported us throughout the 10 weeks.”