03/09/2020 - Jones Holidays celebrates its unsung heroes
Staff receive the Community Champion Award
Jones Holidays of North Wales has been through a difficult 6 months during the Covid-19 crisis, with unprecedented action having to be taken to cancel holidays through the summer of 2020. However, staff who work for Jones Holidays were not deterred from delivering the excellent customer service that Jones Holidays customers enjoy.
Staff who work for the North Wales Tour Operator stepped up to help their customers and others in the local community through a very difficult period of isolation. In March 2020 Jones Holidays drivers, having been told that the tours they would have been driving had been cancelled, voluntarily embarked on a campaign to help the community. They set about delivering prescriptions and food parcels to all those who needed it and have today been awarded the Community Champion Award from Hannah Blythyn MS.
The Here to Help campaign saw over 6,000 prescriptions and food parcels delivered to vulnerable people across North Wales. This undertaking involved great efforts and resource, and the Jones Holidays driving team volunteered some 3,700 hours of their time and have driven over 35,000 miles ensuring people in the local community were able to stay home and stay safe.
One of those who Jones Holidays was able to help said: 'As someone in his 60’s and who has underlying heath issues and advisably been self-isolating since mid-March, with my monthly prescriptions requiring collection from Tesco (Mold), Chris Owens’ Team of drivers have been nothing short of fantastic. This has eased my mind and that of my wife, and when they drop off my critical medication there is always a cheery attitude, they are truly appreciated. To measure how much Chris Owens’ Team has eased my fears is immeasurable and I can only express my most sincere thanks for their continued support'.
Organised by Hannah Blythyn MS, the Community Champion Awards recognise individuals, community groups and organisations who have been committed, proactive and voluntarily contributed to helping local communities, and highlights those who have gone over and above to support others in recent months.
Chris Owens, Managing Director at Alpine Travel who own Jones Holidays said: “We are all delighted to have received this Community Champion Award, and are genuinely touched to have been nominated for the Community Champion Award. It was very kind of Hannah Blythyn MS to take time out of what must be a very busy schedule to come out to see us to present Phil & I with the award itself. This will mean a great deal to all those who were involved in the Here to Help campaign that we embarked on at the beginning of lock down, and we are thrilled to have been able to help the community in the way that we have.