During July there were:

  • 2 Friday night patrols
  • 3 Saturday night patrols
  • 5 Patrols totalling 26 hours of cover involving 17 Street Pastors
  • 24 pairs of flip-flops given, 300 lollies and Love Hearts

Here are some of the ways Street Pastors cared, listened and helped in July:

  • Returned a lost rucksack to its owner
  • Stayed and chatted with a lone female at the bus stop
  • Called a taxi for a young lady who had been unwell
  • Cleared litter from parts of Wantage and Grove

Street Pastor teams were busy during July with one of our teams having to return to base to get more flip-flops for ladies that were walking barefoot through town. We chatted to groups of young people in both Wantage and Grove and cleared plenty of litter off the streets. Apart from helping to tidy up, this also removes glass bottles and cans (potential weapons in the wrong hands) safely out of the way.

We met two ladies in Wantage, one of whom was barefoot, but when we offered free flip- flops the lady became very sceptical of us and a little aggressive towards us – not believing that there wasn’t ‘a catch’. We spent quite some time listening and gently explaining who we were and what we do and the lady talked about her childhood and difficulties that she had faced. As time passed the lady calmed down, apologised and finally accepted the flip-flops from us!

One of our teams found a rucksack hanging in a tree and used our mobile power pack to power up the mobile phone that they found inside. They were able to call ‘Mum’ on the phone and arranged for her to collect the bag from the team. The team was very pleased to find that the young owner of the bag was safe and well.

Street Pastors from several areas including Wantage & Grove joined together to patrol at Henley Royal Regatta. Henley doesn’t have its own Street Pastors so at the request of the Police we patrolled and helped care for lots of people who may have had a little too much to drink!