Lion gets a surprise
Lion Tricia Roberts was given a surprise by members of her club and the Scouting organisations from Newquay when she visited the town recently to attend Towan Blystra Lions Club’s 16th Charter Dinner.
Tricia, who grew up in Newquay, was the secretary of the club until moving to Suffolk to live a few years ago. However, she remains a full member of Towan Blystra Lions and joins meetings by Zoom, as well as having returned on several occasions with her partner John to help with the club’s popular beer festival. On this occasion though, an invitation to join fellow Lions Phil and Jill for Sunday lunch at The Lakeside Cafe in Trenance Park brought with it an unexpected meeting.
Tricia’s father, Roy Roberts B.E.M. had devoted his life to Scouting and had been a massive influence in the development and popularity of the movement in the town and further afield right up until his passing in 1993. The Scouts of the town had dedicated a newly-planted tree to Roy at that time and added his wife, Lorraine’s name to the plaque accompanying it a few years later after her death. With over 30 years having passed, and knowing of Tricia’s visit to the area, Towan Blystra Lions, with the help of one of Roy’s closest Scouting leaders, Peter Keast, had the plaque on the tree replaced with a new one marking Tricia’s visit.
As Tricia and John walked down towards the cafe for lunch, they were blissfully unaware that there was a contingent of over 30 members of 1st and 5th Newquay Scout groups, parents of scouts and some of her Lions friends, near to her father’s tree. The sound of applause as she approached, and the site of a number of people she knew, made it pretty clear to Tricia that something special was about to take place. After a number of tributes to Roy were read by Scout leaders, Tricia was invited to unveil the new plaque at the tree, on which was engraved and acknowledgement of her visit and her rededication of the tree to her father on behalf of herself and the Scouts.
An emotional Tricia told everyone gathered that her dad “was an amazing, amazing man and we all miss him terribly and my Mum was such a wonderful supporter too. I am so grateful to everyone who has taken the time to do this in honour of all he did for Scouting and the young people of Newquay.”
As an additional treat for Tricia, she was presented with the original plaque to take back to Suffolk with her where it will act as an ongoing reminder to her of this special day.
Captions note:
One of the people present was a former member of 5th Newquay Scouts who was pictured with Tricia’s mum, Lorraine, when the tree was originally planted. Matt Camps, joined the celebration resplendent in the colours of the Cornish Tartan, something that he had proudly worn and been photographed in at the tree’s dedication.
