A LONG-serving Borderland Rotary Club member has dedicated his receiving of an extremely rare and prestigious award for more than 30 years of service with the group to his fellow members.

Jonathan Jones, who joined the Borderland Rotary Club in the early 1990s, received the Paul Harris Fellowship Award at the group's recent Christmas celebrations.

They were joined at the party by Oswestry town mayor, Councillor Jay Moore, to celebrate both another successful year and Jonathan's achievement of winning the award for a second time, albeit with a sapphire upgrade.

The Paul Harris Fellowship Award, named after the founder of Rotary, is awarded for service that is way above and beyond what is normally expected of a Rotarian and to receive it once is very special but to get it twice is both 'unusual and quite remarkable'.

Jonathan said: "This award is not for me but for everyone at Borderland and in the community that help make these events possible.

"Don’t forget the old saying, there’s no 'i in team'."

Borderland Rotary Club president Chris Bryan-Smith praised Jonathan's work, saying that he has been at the heart of all organised events since he started.

He has been involved in the Borderland Mountain Bike Challenge started in 1994, the Christmas Parade for much of the 21st century and the Oswestry Fireworks.

Chris said: "He not only runs these events but still finds time to arrange the Pantomime at Rhydycroesau (January 2023) as well as being a husband , father and grandfather, working full time and tending to sheep and horses in his ‘spare time’.

"As Jonathan already received the Paul Harris Fellowship Award way back in 2005, the only thing we can do is award him the very rare, Paul Harris Fellowship Sapphire Award."

This was the first ever to be awarded by Borderland, and it was presented by Cllr Moore.

The mayor, who has worked with Jonathan and the club across different projects across his civic year, praised him.

He said: "You have brightened the lives of so many people in the wider community around Oswestry and I was thrilled to be asked to present this award, it is richly deserved.

"I don’t think there’d be much of a team without you, Jonathan."