At the 50th Anniversary Party at Cookhill Village Hall on 12 June 2009, Honorary Life Membership of the Society was awarded to Jean Chalk.

Jean has been a committee member, serving for a continuous 22 years, during which time she has also taken on the roles of costume mistress, membership secretary and society secretary.

This well deserved award was in recognition of her dedication and long-service to the Society.

The photograph shows Alan Leadbeater (President) and Tony Jay (Chairman) presenting Jean with her certificate of Life Membership.

The Society have created an annual award, dedicated to the memory of our late President Norman Wheeler. This will be presented each year at our AGM to a Society member who has, in one way or another, made an outstanding contribution to the Society in the past year.

We are delighted to announce that the ninth deserving recipient of the Norman Wheeler Memorial Award is Alan Leadbeater.

Alan has been a member, publicity manager, chairman and is currently president of our society. There could be no more fitting recipient of this award, in our special anniversary year, than he. We thank him for everything he has done over the many years, and for always being there with a kind and wise word.

Alan is also a Life Member of the Society and the recipient of NODA’s 50 Years medal, and this further award acknowledges his continued work and dedication to the Society.

The photograph shows Noreen Wheeler presenting the award trophy to Alan Leadbeater at our 50th Year Anniversary Party at Cookhill Village Hall on Fri 12 June 2009.

On Friday 12 June 2009 we kicked-off the celebrations of our golden anniversary with a party at Cookhill Village Hall. As well as Mr Trevor Guest, our NODA Representative, and Mr Tony Derbyshire, our NODA Regional Councillor, we were joined by 120 friends and members of the Society past and present.

As well as celebrating fifty years since the Society’s re-formation, we were also delighted to present NODA 50 Years Long Service awards to some of our founding members who are still with us, and still ‘going strong’.

The photograph shows Pearl and Bob Taylor, Mavis Brazil, Maurice Clarke and Jean and Alan Leadbeater with their awards as presented by Trevor Guest and Tony Derbyshire.