Top honours for multi-tasking Lesley
A multi-talented golf coach, knitter, choral singer and theatre fan has won Pitlochry Rotary’s Citizen of theYear Award for 2018/19.
The prestigious trophy has been awarded to Lesley Whitwood of Grandtully.
Judges from Rotary commented: “There are not many people who reside in the area from Pitlochry to Aberfeldy who have not heard of Lesley due to the multiplicity of areas in which she serves the community.
“Her remarkable talents are so wide and varied that there is just not enough space to cover them all.”
Her story is one of seeing gaps and generously filling them.
On retirement from teaching in the south of England eight years ago, she settled into the small Perthshire village of Grandtully.
Very quickly she took part in local amateur dramatics and was taken on by the Pitlochry Festival Theatre to become a‘describer’for people with impaired sight or blind, part of a team of volunteers that cover all the festival productions.
A keen golfer herself and active member of a local ladies group, she became aware of the absence of anyone to teach golf to youngsters. She took a course to become an accredited teacher and has been teaching children in the area for six years.
Lesley is lady captain and junior coach of Strathtay Golf Club and was, until recently, junior convener of Aberfeldy Golf Club where the junior team reached the county final of the Junior Bell Trophy.
Music is important to her as Lesley sings and plays the guitar and double bass, with her taking the role of vice Pitlochry Rotarian Dougal Spaven with winner Lesley Whitwood of Grandtully
chair of Pitlochry and District Choral Society.
She is a dedicated member of her church group as a lay reader, taking services regularly at Strathtay, Kilmaveonaig and Pitlochry and running a house group in Aberfeldy. Added to this Lesley is currently on the Grandtully Community Village Hall
Committee. This kind-hearted lady is known as an avid creator of knitted and sewing crafts for Open Studios, Pitlochry Gallery and fundraising stalls. At Christmas she amazed locals when she knitted a toy for all 28 of the pupils at Grandtully Primary School.
Together with her trophy, Lesley wins a financial award from the Pitlochry and District Rotary. She has indicated that a substantial part of the award will be donated to the Perth First Responders organisation. The remainder of the award will go St Andrew’s Church, Strathtay.