2011 Jack Petchey Leader Award goes to Debbie Piper

Debbie has been a volunteer since her eldest daughter first joined the club, eight years ago. From the start, she showed an interest in helping out and volunteered for anything that could be done by a netball novice.

Over the years she has been a team manager, scorer, timer and kit manager with teams of all ages and abilities. This has ranged from organising local junior teams, to arranging transport and organising Telstars teams in national club competitions  She organises quietly and efficiently, to the extent that you hardly notice she is there, but equally nothing is needed which she hasn’t already accounted for.

In the area of team manager Debbie has shown great tenacity in researching and gaining the best possible deals for the Telstars girls, whether to do with transport or accommodation on these trips. 

When Telstars were lacking officials to sustain the growth of the club, she qualified as a “C” award umpire, despite her aversion to being in the forefront of things.

Fund raising is crucial for Telstars to be able to travel and compete at different venues nationally and internationally and the role of fund raiser is such a difficult and time consuming job to do and yet, this is another area that Debbie has volunteered and been successful, on Telstars behalf, in.

She has seen two children through the club and seems to be around as much as they are. No job is too small or too difficult. A main source of transport for those that can’t get to venues.

At a recent tournament she was nicknamed Mary Poppins, because her bag contained everything from spare bibs, tissues, headache tablets, safety pins. You need it and more than likely Debbie has it, most times given before you ask.

For the past four years she has taken on the role of Treasurer and as with all other jobs that she has done, we no longer worry about that management area. She does a massive amount to help, but because she does it with a minimum of fuss and so efficiently we don’t notice and therefore are not as openly appreciative as we should be.

Knowing Debbie she will be absolutely delighted to receive this award, but also extremely surprised to be nominated.  Having the opportunity to give this award to one of our volunteers has made us as a club look at what our volunteers actually do. As one of the most unobtrusive people who have helped in this club, it would have been easy to overlook Debbie and how much she actually does, so we are grateful that the process has reminded us of how good she really is.