Page 20 - BR-May-2018

May 2018 May 2018

OBITUARIES

Tony is a rare asset to Bere Regis. He is someone who will always
volunteer, not for the most glamorous or noteworthy of jobs, but for
the behind the scenes, low profile, but vital jobs that many people wouldn’t
even consider. If there is an event in our community, you can pretty much
guarantee that somewhere in the background you will find Tony cheerfully
helping out.
At that point in 2014, for 17 years Tony had been a volunteer for the Pop in
Place, Bere Regis’s Community Group, helping out in all manner of ways, and
bringing fresh fruit and vegetables from Wareham market for sale on a Friday
morning. To do this, Tony buys with his own money and sells on, never quite
knowing if he will actually cover his own costs or not. We suspect he frequently
operates at a loss at his own expense.

He is a member of the team that runs our village hall. He is the first person
everyone turns to run the car parking for any event, be it the School Bonfire
night or Summer Fayre, or for the Jubilee celebrations last year. Tony supports
the Sports Club by acting as scorer for cricket home matches. He has even
been known to act as unofficial traffic policeman on Rye Hill when everything
has ground to a halt when the children are coming out of school.
He is also the unofficial, unpaid and totally voluntary ‘caretaker’ and warden
for his neighbours where he lives, getting older folk to doctors’ appointments, or
to the shops and checking up on people when they are unwell. He organises
an annual Christmas Dinner for the farming community of the parish.
He is a source of country lore and, on his side of the parish he knows where to
find all the 'Gramfer Grigglesticks' (Early Purple Orchids) & Cutty's (Dorset
Wrens). All round the village he is the person who knows if a tree is down and
needs clearing, or if a gate or fence needs mending, and he’ll draw it to the
attention of whoever is responsible for sorting it out, if he hasn’t already done
the job himself.
And he has a prodigious appetite for cake, preferably home-made!

Unassuming, reliable, modest, never seeking the
limelight, Tony is the embodiment of the true volunteer. Small load £80 Large load £175
I know that his nomination as Purbeck Volunteer of the
Year will completely surprise Tony, but delight many
people in Bere Regis who know just how much he does
for the parish.
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Alison Bennett adds these further thoughts; most

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