Plymouth Lions Club have presented special awards to five local people as part of celebrations to mark 100 years of Lions Club International.
An Outstanding Achievement Award was presented by Lion President Graham Hyde to Hilary Knight for her unwavering help at the Shekinah Mission in feeding and attending to the needs of the homeless of Plymouth.
Before retiring Hillary was deputy headmistress of a special school in Plymouth and on retirement turned her attention to the homeless, by assisting with the preparation of meals at the Shekinah Mission which she has now been doing for more than 10 years.
Hillary is also a stalwart of the regular soup runs throughout the city and coordinates all the various charitable organisations that keep this service going day after day.
Centennial Certificates of Appreciation were also presented by Lion President Graham Hyde to Alan and Maureen Stockdale for their unstinting efforts in managing and supporting the Plymouth Special Olympics Team and Irene Wills for her services to the Pisces Swimming Club and to the wider community in Plymouth.
Meanwhile Lion Philip Barnicoat presented a Centennial Certificate of Appreciation to Mark Vidler for his efforts and community spirit at Devonport Park and surrounding community.
The Special Olympics Plymouth club has successfully entered a growing number of athletes to the Special Olympic Games in 2013, 2015 and 2017 with an ever increasing success rate and intend to enter a team for the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dubai.
The club provides opportunities for all people with learning disabilities so that they can develop skills and confidence and overcome the barriers that they face in mainstream life. Although all of their athletes have learning disabilities, they all come from different walks of life and have varying levels of ability. The occurrence of learning disability knows no boundaries. It cuts across the lines of racial, ethnic, educational, social and economic background. For every athlete who has been given the opportunity, Special Olympics helps people with learning disabilities participate as productive and valued members of society.
The aim of the Pisces Swimming Club is to provide a friendly and safe environment where the members, together with their families and carers, can swim in comfort and privacy and provide the opportunity for members to attend galas held at various locations around the country.
Sessions are also held most Sundays in the year and the venue has an extensive set of facilities to enable members to enjoy each session to the full, including wheelchair access to the poolside, disabled toilets, flotation aids and a range of equipment to enable easy and safe access from the poolside to the pool.
Irene has previously been awarded the British Empire Medal for her work as chairwoman of War Widows’ Association of Great Britain.
Devonport Park also known as ‘The People’s Park’ is a beautiful Victorian park, in use as such since the mid-1800s. Mark Vidler has a willing spirit, he is quickly and actively involved with anything in and around the community assisting in any way he can at fayres and community gatherings at both Devonport and Victoria Park.
The Lions Club of Plymouth always welcome new members, should you feel you would like to become involved in raising funds for the Local Community and National/International disasters, please contact the membership secretary, Lion Lionel Marsh on 01752 345623 email: lionel.marsh@btinternet.com
