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Christmas turkey presentation - despite the snow - for woman who served Girl Guides for 60 years: North East Somerset’s latest Community Champion
‘Unsung hero’ Mavis Flower was presented with a 12lb Christmas turkey, generously donated by Radstock-based butcher Mitchard’s, by Mr Norris in recognition of her outstanding work for the community.
Monday's overnight snowfall (21 December) had looked set to scupper Miss Flower getting her prize as she was unable to leave her Clutton home to drive on the icy roads to Mitchard’s to receive it. So Dan Norris, who set up the Community Champions scheme earlier this year with sponsorship from Lloydspharmacy, collected it from the butcher and drove it to Miss Flower’s home in time for Christmas.
Mr Norris said: “Community Champions are unsung heroes who truly go the extra mile to make life better for people right across North East Somerset.
“Mavis Flower was nominated because of her 60 years of service to local girls and young women who attended local Girl Guide groups. The judging panel agreed she is a worthy winner. There are literally hundreds of women living across our area who have benefited in some way from Mavis’s dedicated work down the years.
“It is extraordinary to think she has been serving the Guide movement since just after the end of the second world war. Some of those who, as teenagers, were in the Guides when she started helping out are now senior citizens.
“Mavis doesn’t have family of her own, but nonetheless it’s a sign of her selflessness that when offered a special Christmas turkey, she chose to pass it on to her niece and family who live nearby, so they can enjoy it on Christmas Day.
“It would have been a real shame if the dangerous roads resulting from the overnight snowfall had stopped Mavis receiving her prize, so I felt it was important to collect it for her and take it to her home. Hopefully this will mean members of her family can have an even happier Christmas now, courtesy of Mavis’s outstanding service.”
Mavis Flower finally retired from her long association with the Guides in October 2009. As well as helping organise and manage local Girl Guide sessions she was also a valued officer member of the Division of Girl Guides which covers the Keynsham, Saltford, Midsomer Norton and Radstock areas.
Mitchard’s Butchers is based in Elm Terrace, Westfield. Gilbert Mitchard established the business nearly 100 years ago. The shop, still in the same premises today, is run by his grandson, Brian, assisted by his two sons.
The Community Champion scheme is organised Dan Norris, with sponsorship by Lloydspharmacy, whose North East Somerset branches are located in Keynsham, Midsomer Norton and Paulton. It was launched earlier this year, aiming to highlight and thank people who not only make a tremendous difference to their community but who have not previously been officially recognised for all their efforts. More information, including details of how to make a nomination, can be found using this link.
The judging panel includes representatives from Lloydspharmacy, local media, the Citizens Advice Bureau, the Kidscape children’s charity and locally-based national charity ERIC. |
Hundreds
of North East Somerset girls and young women have been helped down the
years by elderly Clutton resident Mavis Flower, who retired from a 60
year association with the local Girl Guide movement in the autumn. And
her outstanding service has not gone unnoticed, as she has just become
the latest person to be formally recognised through Dan Norris’s
MPs’ Community Champion award.