Mark Cousins
Eastington, Gloucestershire

Owen Harris Memorial Ground Committee, custodians of a bequeathed sports field.

Having just moved to the village of Eastington in 2003, Mark decided that the best way to get to know people was by attending community meetings hosted by the Owen Harris Memorial Ground Committee (OHMGC). At that time there was a 40 year old hut on the grounds that was just about ready to fall down, but still provided a home for a playgroup which relied on the dilapidated building for its existence. The Committee wanted to secure the future of the playgroup and to create a vibrant new community centre on the site. Fundraising had started, but nobody on the Committee felt they had the leadership skills, or project management expertise, to achieve their vision.

Despite having no experience of project managing the development of a new building, Mark was determined to see the new centre happen, and was duly elected Chairman.

After five years of fundraising, much of the £550,000 required to complete the build had been raised. Construction work on the new centre started in 2008 and was finished a year later, on time and within budget.

Today, Eastington has a modern, state of the art, community centre with eight acres of playing fields and sports grounds. It hosts a wide range of community activities for thousands of people each year, ranging from football clubs and exercise classes to social events and corporate training courses. Mark secured grants to ensure the centre is eco-friendly, and as a result it generates its own hot water and is one of the most energy efficient buildings in the area.

Mark describes the task he undertook as, “exciting, daunting, hard work but tremendously satisfying.” As well as keeping the Committee motivated and all pulling together, he had to manage the architect and building contractors, co-ordinate volunteers, continue to secure the additional funds required to complete the building work, and ensure that the whole project was finished on time and within budget.

One of the members of the Committee comments that, “Despite numerous problems and setbacks, nothing deterred Mark. He always seemed to instinctively know what to do to keep things moving forward. Without him, the Eastington Community Centre would never have been started, let alone completed.”

Despite having three young children and working full time, Mark put in hundreds of hours into achieving his dream for the community. In fact, Mark learned so much about green technologies during the project that he retrained, and changed his career from computer programmer to solar technology entrepreneur.

Commenting on his Versatility in Volunteering Award, Mark said: “It’s wonderful recognition and is a glowing tribute to everyone involved. We all learned so much about ourselves and achieved things we never thought we could. It’s opened up so many exciting new avenues and the community has a centre to be proud of.”

Explaining the judges’ decision to present the award to Mark, the Chairman of the judging panel, Tim Smith, Partner, Ward Hadaway, said: “Mark is a wonderful volunteer who was not daunted by the scale of the task and showed remarkable ability to turn his hand to anything. A truly inspirational person and without whom this project would never have achieved its potential.”