Northampton self-employed traders who helped the homeless during pandemic receive Rose of Northamptonshire Award

A group of traders who helped support a homeless charity in Northampton during the pandemic has received a Rose of Northamptonshire Award.

NN4 Traders was set up during the first national lockdown in April last year by self-employed trader, Angie Hackett.

The group soon developed a large following and provided a lifeline to many of the self employed who had seen their income disappear almost overnight.

The NN4 Traders directory allowed many of the traders to become quite entrepreneurial in finding new products and services to sell when their existing businesses were curtailed by the restrictions imposed by the pandemic.

Devoting many hours to the directory, Angie was able promote the businesses to the community via the Facebook page and also by the newly created website directory to ensure all were able to source and obtain the traders, services and goods available.

Angie said " I myself as a sole trader saw my existing business of dog walking suffer due to the initial lockdown and the furloughing of many of my clients who then had no need for my services. I thought that if this is happening to me then its happening to others and whilst people were locked in their homes they needed to obtain essential services. This spurred me to create a Facebook page and I then invited traders and customers to join.

"The take-off was immediate and all types of businesses joined offering all types of services. Some offered new businesses and others had adapted their existing businesses such as pubs and restaurants offering takeaway meals. It also soon came to light that many small businesses who had been trading years but had never promoted themselves such as a local beekeeper who harvested his own honey, a man who restrung tennis racquets, mobile mechanics and afternoon tea delivery were soon on the much needed list of services," Angie said.

The Facebook page has grown to more than 8,500 members and at times was accepting upto 170 new members per day.

One spin off from this is that NN4 Traders have supported Project 16:15 a local homeless charity during last year in providing funds from the sale of our NN4 Traders vehicle stickers and providing 30+ sleeping pods for the towns homeless.

Given the initial success of this support NN4 Traders also helped the disadvantage last Christmas in providing Christmas dinners with all the trimmings from the £3,300 donated by generous traders.

Businesses from NN4 Traders have also provided their specialist services from electrical, plumbing and gas engineers free of charge to those in the community who could not afford to pay.

In recognition NN4 Traders have been given The Rose of Northamptonshire award and in her own right Angie has also been given an award in recognition of the commitment and dedication she has put into setting up the NN4 Traders directory which has provided an income for many who missed out on government payment schemes but also for the tremendous amount of help that has been given to charity and to those in the community.

Angie added: "It was such a delightful surprise for both NN4 Traders and myself to be recognised and to be given The Rose of Northamptonshire award and we will continue to help as many as we can during this time which seems will go on for a long time yet.