When Peter Aldcroft first became President of the Allendale Lions Club, throughout 2007, 2008 and 2009, he initiated a series of team building awards, presented often in batches, framed, to the recipients at a business meeting. For whatever reason, Nigel Baynes seemed to have collected perhaps a first draft, or first print prior to framing, of all of these awards. I wonder if perhaps there was a colour printer in the Baynes office, and Peter tried out his ideas there, before presenting the final award? Nigel, being Nigel, may have kept a copy for his burgeoning treasure trove of memories.
Anyway, there are some 20 or so of these various awards in Nigel’s copious archive, and these copies will be intercalated, ultimately, into their appropriate time slot during Peter’s term. Since I only found them sometime toward the end of my perusal of the various folders and envelopes I’ve been entrusted with, they’ll all be presented out of sequence in the regular blog, but by editing of the calendar, I should be able to get them into the right places thereafter.
One of the first such awards was made to Hilary Aldcroft for her perseverance and diligence in organising the schedule and rota for the annual Santa’s Sleigh tours around our local area. That was a job, often unsung, until Peter invented his awards.
At the time, the Allendale Lions toured around Haltwhistle, Bardon Mill, Haydon Bridge, Allenheads, and Allendale. Perhaps at some point there was an issue of territory, as a neighbouring Lions Club laid claim to one or another village for collecting. But whatever issues arose, there was always the question of logistics, of getting the sleigh sorted, or arranging the Elf rota for the collecting tins, and in general being on top of things. A perfect storm, in other words, and not for the faint-hearted, so the award was well-deserved!