Mayor of Gosport 100 Award.
The Mayor of Gosport, Cllr Jamie Hutchison, presented special awards in November to help mark the 100th anniversary of Gosport becoming a borough.
Cllr Hutchison said: "As part of the borough's 100th anniversary, I wanted to celebrate the achievements of people who make a difference in our community. They could be people who organise community events, or who do valuable work like caring for others or litter-picking. The list of possibilities is endless - I'm just looking for people who have made a positive contribution to their neighbourhood or the borough as a whole."
NCI Gosport was nominated for an award, which was presented to Station Manger Colin Church at a recent ceremony. This is his account….
"Following his recent visit to the Signal Tower, home of NCI Gosport, we were fortunate enough to be nominated for the Mayor of Gosport’s Volunteer Team award. The Ceremony, held at the GBC offices, was attended by myself (Colin Church, Station Manager) and Caroline Hildrew (Deputy Station Manager).
After a warm welcome the Mayor opened the proceedings with a lovely anecdote of a little old lady who was always seen out and about picking litter. Many people thought she was a little crazy and she would smile as you passed her by. She became part of the scenery picking litter every day, the crazy lady, and then one day she died. On the day of her funeral the hearse drove around the town and all of the shop keepers and people on the route clapped. The moral being that volunteers are probably thought of as being a bit crazy but are very much appreciated, and that much of the country would come to a standstill without the invaluable support of volunteers.
The Mayor also outlined the purpose of the Mayor’s 100 awards as 'to pass on our admiration and appreciation for your much valued work and commitment in our community. Thank you for making Gosport a great place to live’.
Before the presentation started I had chance to read some of the citations of those collecting awards and I was humbled to be included on behalf of NCI Gosport. As you can see from the table of mugs there were a lot of people to be thanked from the ‘Gosport Wombles’ who do great work in keeping Gosport free from litter by litter picking regularly in all weathers, to a supporter of GAFIRS (for 46 years and still going), Gosport Cats Protection and a lovely lady who has been fostering for over 40 years and has provided a safe home environment for over 100 children.
NCI Gosport station manager Colin Church receiving the Award Certificate from the Mayor of Gosport, Cllr Jamie Hutchison.
At the end of the ceremony the Mayor invited everyone to see the Mayor’s Parlour and we spotted something from the Signal Tower which we had presented to him during his recent visit [Not before trying our the Mayors chair, evidently.... Ed].
