LINDA PIGGOTT – PAUL HARRIS FELLOW AWARD
THE ROTARY CLUB OF ILMINSTER CITATION
Rotary established the Paul Harris recognition in 1957 to encourage and show appreciation for substantial contributions to what was then the Foundation’s only programme, Rotary Foundation Fellowships for Advanced Study, the precursor to Ambassadorial Scholarships.
‘When we decide to award a Paul Harris Fellowship it is the practice of the Rotary Club of Ilminster to put together a brief explanation of why the person concerned is worth one. To make it more the club likes to keep the recipient guessing until as late in the spiel as they can.
This new Paul Harris Fellow is a Past President and has been a real force in and for the Ilminster Club since joining in 2002. There was always a popular misconception that Rotarians were middle class old men in grey suits, well-meaning but dull; not this one! For a start this recipient was the first member of the club without a y chromosome. She was and is outrageous, outspoken and utterly unconventional. She put others to shame with her restless energy. She bared her all in the national press campaigning for better breast cancer treatment, abseiling down County Hall for charity, cooking for the King of the Gypsies, teaching immigrants and convicts. She is the only member the club is ever likely to have who had a cow named after her by the African villagers in Nairobi, to whom it was sent to provide for hungry children. She went to Africa to see the toilets the club was trying to get replaced, and to India to see the school for young women the club was supporting through a literacy project. Very occasionally she was at home.
Nearer to home, she served the community on every possible local council and was hugely respected by all as someone who would move heaven and earth to get things done. No problem was too small for her to worry about or too big for her to shun. Some weeks the local press seemed to be full of her and she won the Ilminster club a national award for outstanding publicity.
That was the bit everyone heard about, but she did so much more that never appeared in the press. She gave up hours of the time she hadn’t got to the Samaritans. She helped countless individuals in need and those the system fails with selfless, patient kindness. Her version of ‘Service Above Self’ was so intense that, at times, the club was genuinely concerned for the one person she did not seem to take care of… herself.
It would be hard to imagine a more deserving Paul Harris Fellow than Linda Piggott.’
