Our Thanks to the Volunteers in Twickenham

Written by Vincent Cable MP and published in Online Exclusive on Fri 28th Jan 2005

It is easy to be cynical: to assume that people care only about themselves. But, last week, I encountered several inspiring examples of local people making a major impact through idealism energy and good organisation.

Teddington Lions Club had the smart idea, some time ago, of buying up, cheaply, a stock of emergency tents with clean water units, to help in a future disaster. Then came the tsunami. With a Lions member on holiday in the region, they got hundreds of life saving kits into the area within days. Teddington fund raising, a few visionaries, and quick reactions have transformed - perhaps saved - shattered lives.

Then a group of Hampton residents, originally form Sri Lanka, have organised a charity to rebuild a Sri Lankan fishing village, with forty homes and a school, in an area devastated by floods. Within days they had raised a third of their £40,000 target. A new Hampton village is already taking shape.

Also in Hampton, I was invited to open a new training pitch for a local youth football team, the Rangers. Started by a policeman in the 1960's to keep teenagers off the streets, the club was almost closed by vandals who destroyed its changing rooms in Hatherop Park and the facilities on its nearby training pitch. But some parents and supporters didn't give up. Through a lot of work, persistence and generous donations, they have saved the club. It now has a new all weather, floodlit, training pitch. The boys (and girls) are delighted with it. And children, who would otherwise be hanging out on the streets, have something worthwhile to do.

Few of the volunteers behind these ventures will achieve or expect public recognition. But we are indebted to them all.