It’s becoming an exciting pleasure to give away Community Stars to the amazing people we meet and learn about and I am sure no one can deny that Julia Gilbert is one such worthy recipient.
She is unwavering in her determination to make the Hockey Club and EOSA the best it can provide for Ely. Her fund-raising of nearly £200,000 for a new hockey proves that she is one special resident for our City.
Alongside Steve Ellis from SE-Electrical who sponsored the award, we decided to gatecrash their end of year hockey dinner at the EOSA club on Downham Road to the surprise of everyone in the room. You can watch it below.
The nomination came from a fellow voluntary directory of EOSA, Jon Evans and entitled it “Amazing dedication to the improvement of facilities at Ely Outdoor Sports Association”
Julia is a voluntary director at EOSA. She gives her time freely and spends many hours supporting the sports that benefit from the building which has been in need of improvement.
She has daughters who play hockey and her husband Mark was involved in the installation of the original floodlights.
Two recent projects that show her determination and drive are the new £198K Hockey Astro pitch, a project she project managed from start to finish during 2017/18, almost singlehandedly, submitting grant applications, managing contracts, engaging and supervising contractors and even making the tea while it was laid; and our new kitchen which has also been installed in the last few months, after a successful bid for money from the Calor community fund, supported by Spotted in Ely and the local community.
Her work is untiring and she deserves recognition for her efforts, that everyone at EOSA really appreciates.
Jon Evans nomination for Julia Gilbert.
During her speech which, in fairness, the whole room wanted to hear she said “Once we got halfway to raising the money, I just couldn’t stop and its for you and next generation, the future players of hockey. You are the future”.
Interested in playing hockey then have a look at their Facebook page for more information:
https://www.facebook.com/ElyCityHockeyClub/ and please take a look at the wonderful EOSA facilities too:
https://www.facebook.com/EOSAelyoutdoorsportsassociation/ .
