From Engage, Newsletter No.1, of Warminster Town Council, published February 2008:
Bingo! Mary Is A Worthy Civic Award Winner.
If anyone wonders what service to the community means, take a look at Mary Stewart. Mary, winner of this year’s civic award, has had a long association with Warminster, and over the years has given selflessly of her time.
In the days when she had five children to bring up, she pitched herself into the job of fundraising and washing kit for the youth teams in which some of her children played. In the 1980s, she and her husband Neville became actively involved in the MS Society. The armed forces created another opportunity for Mary to show her colours. Neville, who died in 1989, served 22 years with The Black Watch. One of Mary’s feats was helping to cook enormous steaming pots of goulash for the Sergeants Mess dinners.
Teas, Bingo and Non-Stop Charity Work.
When the Cricket Club was opened, Neville and Mary became the first Stewards of the Club, while Mary quickly established a reputation for her teas. But even as others were developing a taste for her cricketing catering, she was developing a taste for charity work because nothing would stop her from volunteering to help raise funds. On her 70th birthday and her 75th birthday, when she would have been forgiven for thinking about ways to celebrate these personal milestones, she threw herself into organising coffee mornings.
Over the years, Mary’s Prize Bingos at the United Services Club have helped to raise money for many local charities including Wylye Valley Riding For The Disabled, Christmas Lights, Shopmobility and Wiltshire Air Ambulance. Strangely, despite all this activity she finds some spare time. Perhaps not so strangely, she uses it to be on duty at the Beckford Centre Shop, makes cakes for an assortment of coffee mornings and lends a hand with cancer charity cream teas.
Mary is the first to say she couldn’t do it all without the help and support of friends and family; nonetheless, she remains an inspiration to us all. So congratulations to Mary and a big thank you for all your hard work!