From Christmas parade to mountain bike challenges, Jonathan recognised for his work in Rotary
A Rotary member who has spend two decades organising events from mountain bike challenges to helping to rescue a firework display has been given a prestigious award.
Jonathan Jones was presented with the Paul Harris Sapphire Award by the Oswestry Borderland Rotary Club, the first to be awarded by the club.
Among those at the presentation was Oswestry's mayor, Councillor Jay Moore, who handed over the nationally-recognised award.
Borderland Rotary president Chris Bryan-Smith said, “Jonathan has been with Borderland since the early 1990s and has arranged just about every major event that the club has ever been involved with.
"The Borderland Mountain Bike Challenge started in 1994, the Christmas Parade runs every year and the Oswestry Fireworks, which this year was held at The Venue due to unforeseen circumstances.
"He not only runs these events but still finds time to help arrange the pantomime at Rhydycroesau as well as being a husband, father and grandfather, working full time and tending to sheep and horses in his ‘spare time’.
"As Jonathan already received the Paul Harris Fellowship Award way back in 2005, the only thing we can do is award him the very rare, Paul Harris Fellowship Sapphire Award; the first ever to be awarded by Borderland."
When he presented the award, Councillor Moore thanked Jonathan and the Rotary Club members for their hard work.
He said: “You have brightened the lives of so many people in the wider community around Oswestry and I was thrilled to be asked to present this award, it is richly deserved."
In accepting the award, Jonathan said: "This award is not for me but for everyone at Borderland and in the community that help make these events possible. Don't forget the old saying, 'there is no I in team'."
The Paul Harris Fellowship Award, named after the founder of Rotary, is awarded for service that is way above and beyond what is normally expected of a Rotarian.
"To accept it once is very, very special but to get it twice is both unusual and quite remarkable – as is the work that Jonathan has done for this community over the years," said Mr Bryan-Smith,
