A truly civil Buckingham

On Saturday 17 June, I had the delightful experience of participating in the annual Civic Day organised by the Buckingham Society here in our town. Civic days are:

a national celebration of civic pride. It is a day when communities across the country say "we care about where we live"

The main part of the agenda was giving out awards to the Citizen of the Year and the Young Citizen of the year, which is administered by the local Rotary Club. (Winners, Harry and Ros, are in the centre of the picture, holding their citations.)

(Thank you to Cllr Warren Whyte for use of this group picture)

The Rotary Club also made awards to the some of the best Swimathon participants and donations to a number of worthy groups in the town. Rotary President Peter Bartlett (on the right of the picture) gave these awards & cheques with a little assistance from me.

But back to the citizen's of the year. This is what I told about the two people:

Ros Hutt

We received several nominations for Ros. She is clearly well liked and appreciated in the community, a lady who is known to “go the extra mile” to help others.

Ros was not only nominated in recognition of all the charity work she undertakes, she was also nominated for offering “outstanding support and friendship” to so many people, in our community, especially the more elderly members; either by sitting with them in times of need or by providing lifts in her car so that they can get to hospital appointments or visit sick relatives.

Ros is seen as someone who goes about things in a calm manner and always has a welcome smile on her face. She never seeks any recognition for the work that she does; clearly one of life’s “unsung heroes” and thoroughly deserving this year’s Rotary Citizen of the Year Award.

Harry Smith

Harry was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy as a baby. He was not expected to walk, talk or go to the local school yet today, despite numerous challenges, Harry attends Buckingham Primary School and has grown to be a happy, bright and popular 8 year old.

Rather than letting life get the better of him, Harry is constantly pushing himself, he loves sports and always is keen to compete in the school sports days and was chosen to play for the school basketball team recently. He also enjoys playing football for Winslow United pan disabled team, winning the Managers Player last week. His main aim in life is to be in the Paralympics!

Harry has achieved all this, despite spending all of last summer in plaster cast, his ability to bounce back is amazing. If someone says he can't do something he will do everything to prove them otherwise.

Harry is an inspiration to everyone who meets him and is thoroughly deserving of this year’s Rotary Young Citizen of the Year Award.

Two very worthy winners of this accolade!

More pictures: here is one of Ros responding to the award taken by John Cornwall (thank you for this and the other pics below)

and receiving her citation from me and Peter, Rotary President.

This one of the Mayoress, I particularly like

Here's Peter in full flow!

And how the day began, with Russell Cross, the Town Crier, in full epiglottal voice!