Volunteers honoured for decades of fundraising
TWO elderly pensioners from the Cynon Valley have been honoured for their decades of fundraising for an international development charity.
Tegwen Evans, 93, and Colin Paveltish, 84, have been awarded for their years of “incredible dedication” to Christian Aid for helping out with tasks from delivering hundreds of envelopes through letter boxes to opening and banking the donations.
The award was presented to Tegwen, of Carmel Independent Chapel in Penrhiwceiber last Monday by Mari McNeill, Christian Aid’s South Wales regional coordinator, at the nearby pensioners’ centre.
Her daughter, Dwynwen Morgan, who nominated Ms Evans for the award, said: “My mother truthfully says that organising anything over the years in her beloved Welsh Chapel has been a ‘labour of love’.
“For a 93-year-old that means a lot of organising. She has organised Christian Aid collections from Carmel Welsh Independent Chapel in Penrhiwceiber for about 25 years.
“This includes organising collectors to take part in the famous house-tohouse collection, doing her own collecting, gathering in the envelopes, opening, counting and banking the donations. Oh, what a labour of love!
“As members of Carmel Chapel, we were delighted to nominate Tegwen for this award.”
Colin Paveltish received his accolade at the annual joint Christian Aid week service at St Winifred’s Church in Penrhiwceiber.
Yvonne Savage, who nominated Colin for the award, said: “Our church chose to nominate Mr Paveltish because he has spent decades collecting for Christian Aid.
“We are unsure of the exact date he began, but our church only remembers him as being involved. Every May he has single-handedly delivered 100-150 envelopes throughout the village for Newtown.
“Not only that, he would stand for hours in Mountain Ash in all weather conditions with a collecting bucket. Now in his 80s, he can no longer collect around the whole of Newtown, but he does as much as he can.
“His commitment to Christian Aid’s work is exemplary and a great encouragement and challenge to us all.”
Every May, thousands of supporters take the streets for door-to-door collections, bake sales, sponsored walks, abseils, among many other events, to raise money for the charity, which supports people around the world living in poverty.
Ms McNeill added: “Without the dedication of our supporters year on year, like Tegwen, Colin and the local churches, we wouldn’t be able to do the work that we do.
“Right now, Christian Aid is tackling poverty in around 40 countries around the world, including providing support to refugees and food and water to those on the brink of starvation across East Africa where the lives of 16m people hang in the balance.”