Sir,
I would like to take this opportunity to express my great admiration of the Monmouth local charities namely, the Royal British Legion, Monmouth Lions, Monmouth Rotary Club and Monmouth Loyal Masonic Lodge, for their great effort once again in producing well over 79 Christmas Parcels for 2008 for local distribution.
Great tribute should be paid not only to our local charities but also to Mr Tim Wingrove, Manager of our local Waitrose store and his staff for their unstinting efforts in the organisation of these Christmas Parcels.
Especially, it is important to note that the Year 2008 was not only beset by the onset of the hard recession in the United Kingdom but also, unfortunately, one of our local charities, Monmouth Rotary Club, was struck a devastating blow with regard to the annual Wye Raft Race, which had to be abandoned owing to extreme flooding of the Wye river. This is usually one of their main annual charity fund raising events and provides the main funding thrust for their Christmas Parcels.
In these prevailing hostile circumstances, I acknowledge with great gratitude the steps that were taken by Mr Wingrove who promptly arranged for "Christmas Parcels" to be included as one of the three charities subscribed to in the Waitrose monthly "Community Matters" programme during the month of December 2008. This marvellous gesture provided a great financial impetus to all the town charities, not least of all Monmouth Rotary Club. For this I would like to thank personally, the Waitrose staff on behalf of our local charities.
It would be very remiss of me if I were not to acknowledge the great work undertaken by Mr Derek Jones MBE for the past 40 years since the Christmas Parcel Scheme was inaugurated by me as the Medical Officer of Health for the Borough of Monmouth.
It is befitting to note that every year the Royal British Legion, under his stewardship, has committed to between 40 and 50 parcels per annum, Such dedication, along with his other valuable local community involvement over the years, deserves not only the national recognition of his having been awarded an MBE, but also the recognition and gratitude of the people of Monmouth for his stalwart work in this field of local charities. On behalf of them I would also like to add my good wishes to him and his wife for a very happy, long and fruitful retirement from his charitable commitments.
Dr M S Matharu OBE
(Consultant in Public Health, Gwent Health Authority, Rtd)