Dawlish Water Rotary Club has chosen for its 2021 Community Champion Dawlish Town Council events, projects and tourism officer Angie Weatherhead – an incredible volunteer champion in her own right.

The award was presented at the Mount Pleasant Inn by Rotary president Anne Harrison and the introduction was made by Rotary Community Service Committee Chairman Ed McLaughlin.

He told members and guests: ‘I have seldom in my life met anyone so dedicated, hard-working and so cheerful!

‘Her work for Dawlish Town Council is well-known but the true extent of her voluntary activities defies belief – Dawlish Celebrates Carnival, Chamber of Commerce, and so on.

‘She has been involved with the Alice Cross Centre in Teignmouth, Dawlish Art, Dawlish Choral Society, Dawlish in WWI, University of Exeter Club (Exeter Branch), Mummas That Move, Open Daw, Shaldon Village (Shaldon Tourism), Shores of South Devon, Poetry for Pleasure, Sunflower Bunch, Dawlish Walking Festival – much of it hands on and in website management and hosting and often on a largely voluntary basis to give small charities and organisations a web presence.’

In addition, Angie was until recently the volunteer membership secretary and webmaster for the International Confederation of Amputee Associations (IC2A).

She was a proof reader on the WHO standard for Prosthetics and Orthotics and has worked on projects for Vietnam, the Lebanon and the EU One Hand project.

She went as a volunteer to South Africa and Japan to help IC2A at their stand at the World Congress of Amputee Associations.

Among the Rotary guests was Dawlish mayor, Cllr Val Mawhood, who also praised Angie for her strength and courage and her early work to combat the effects of Covid including the coordination and management of the volunteers in the Dawlish Hospital car park as part of the vaccination programme ‘which helped to save a lot of lives’.

In all, more than 56,000 vaccinations took place at the hospital with people coming from not only Dawlish but surrounding areas.

Accepting the Rotary award, Angie, in return, thanked all the volunteers and her husband Huw for their huge support.

Pictured left to right: Dawlish mayor Cllr Val Mawhood, Angie Weatherhead and Dawlish Water Rotary Club president Anne Harrison.