A year of lockdown in Doncaster: How fancy dress brought colour to the streets during lockdown
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Among the more colourful places to be was Edlington, as postman Dave Evans became a firm favourite with residents after switching his usual Royal Mail uniform for a succession of fancy dress costumes.
Postie Dave Evans wanted to cheer up residents of the village of Edlington during the difficult weeks of lockdown and decided to dress up while delivering mail wearing different costumes every day ranging from Elsa from Frozen to Captain America and Buzz Lightyear.
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Hide AdDave had previously dressed up as an elf on his round at Christmas, but swapped costumes each day during lockdown after he was challenged to give it a go by Toni Matthews, from the Edlington Community Organisation at the Yorkshire Main Community Centre in the former pit village.
He said: “I tried to get costumes on Ebay, but was told it would take four to five weeks to get anything because it was non essential. Then I put the word out locally about what I was trying to do, and why. Within an hour, I had 30 outfits donated.”
At the same time another Edlington resident, Dean Ashbridge, was dressing up as the character Deadpool when he went for walks around the village in his costume.
Residents were so pleased to see him that he started posting on Facebook daily what street he would appear on that evening and even expanded his walks to the village of Warmsworth.
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Hide AdWhen lockdown started to ease Dean and Dave arranged a joint NHS fundraising event with Dean dressing up as Deadpool and Dave as Cruella DeVil and they walked through the village collecting £512 for the hospitals Rainbow Garden Appeal at Doncaster Royal Infirmary. That was set to create two gardens, one at Doncaster Royal Infirmary and one at Bassetlaw Hospital, in memory of those lost to Covid-19, including hospital staff Kevin Smith and Dr Medhat Atalla.
Meanwhile, in Thorne, teenager Saffron Livesey became well known for donning an inflatable dinosaur costume on her daily walks.