From left to right: Sharyn Wheale, Fleet Lions President Paul Doughty, Phill Gower, Fleet Lions Vice President Roger Munday and Colin Gray, Chairman of Fleet Pond Society (FPS)

Jim Storey, Committee Member of FPS and also Fleet Lion, writes:

“Colin Gray, Chairman of FPS, was recently presented with the highest honour Fleet Lions could bestow, a Melvin Jones Fellowship. He was given a very smart plaque to mark his achievements and this was to recognise all the work Colin has done to support the town, the Pond and Lions. He gets to be an honorary Lion too.

The award is named after the chap who founded Lions in Chicago in 1917 and Fleet Lions do not hand them out lightly. He’s only the 4th non-Lion to be given this in 40 years. The others are Beverley Allardice who runs the Lions Community Store, Rotarian Geoff Baker and Dianne Rust (who set up and runs Marfan). Only four Fleet Lions have been given one.

Sharyn Wheale and Phill Gower, both keen supporters of the Pond, were similarly honoured at the same ceremony (see above photo).”

You can read about Fleet Lions and their activities here and there is an interesting biography of Melvin Jones here.

First Place 🙂

David Pottinger writes:

Here are some pictures of the Fleet Pond Society (FPS) team and float from this year’s Carnival. We’re happy to say that FPS was awarded first place in the Walking category. Many congratulations to Terry Austin (who master minded the project) and the rest of the crew!

The theme for 2015 was ‘Through The Decades’ and there was a lot of competition, see here for the list of over 25 entrants.

In case you’re wondering, in total there were 2 monks, 3 swans and 3 pirates in the FPS walking team.

The FPS Carnival Team for 2015

Closeup of the FPS float

A swan and a pirate with a common cause

Relaxing with a celebratory drink!

There are some impressive general photos of Fleet Carnival 2015 here. Can you spot the one that features FPS?

The above pictures were kindly provided by Michelle Salter.

Colin and Mavis Gray, after opening the new bridge

Cathy Holden writes:

Colin and Mavis Gray, of the Fleet Pond Society, came back from their holiday to a huge surprise recently. In recognition of their thirty year involvement with the Fleet Pond Nature Reserve and their forthcoming Golden Wedding anniversary, their colleagues on the Executive Committee decided to install a new bridge in their honour.

The mission took a lot of planning in order to keep it a complete secret from Colin and Mavis. While they were on a weeks’ holiday, the ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ volunteer team, under Project Manager Terry Austin, Vice Chairman of the Fleet Pond Society, moved in to construct the new bridge over the stream at Fugelmere Road.

The plaque on the new bridge (click to expand)

Phill Gower, of local firm Cove Industries, constructed the framework for the bridge, and worked alongside the Fleet Pond Society team to help install it.

A surprised Colin said:

“Mavis and I feel very honoured to have a bridge named for us in celebration of our Golden Wedding Anniversary and as a thank you for our work for the Pond and our other community work. It was a totally unexpected surprise. We do not feel we deserve such a high tribute but it is heart-warming to find that our friends and colleagues feel we do.

Everyone involved kept it a very close secret, a remarkable feat in itself given how many took part in the planning and construction!”

Photo credits: Cathy Holden.

Ed. I will be publishing a series of photos on the construction of the bridge, which was very interesting in it’s own right, in a future article.