Home News Your Champions 2011 Articles

Your Champions 2011: Rhosesmor volunteer nominated for village hall work

A VOLUNTEER who has given up hours of his time to keep a village hall running has been nominated for an award.

More than 40 people signed a nomination form for Geoff North to be Champion of the Year in the Scottish Power/Trinity Mirror Your Champions awards 2011.

Geoff started helping out at Rhosesmor Village Hall in 2004, when the committee applied for a grant from the Aggregates Levy Fund to refurbish the hall.

He volunteered as a labourer for 11 months when the refurbishment was being carried out and took on the role of project manager.

Since the opening in 2006 Geoff, 69, has been looking after the hall and spends about 20 hours a week helping out.

He said: “In the village we only have the church and one, quite small, pub so the village hall is the only place people can really go to meet– it’s really important to us.

“Over the years we have been trying to get more people interested in running the hall and the number of people involved is slowly increasing.”

Geoff’s wife Mary also dedicates a lot of her time to the upkeep of the hall.

Geoff said: “A lot of the community help out. When the hall was being refurbished the WI came in to do all the decorating and painted the ceilings and the walls.”

In their nomination, the group of 44 residents said: “Whenever we need help or information Geoff is always available and a pleasure to talk to– always a smile and a welcome.

“He has been known to take people to hospital for visiting and waiting for them to come out– often waiting hours! We don’t know how we would manage without him.”

Share