Tina Clements – Charity Champion or Volunteer nominee
Tina Clements – Charity Champion or Volunteer nominee
From raising hundreds of thousands of pounds for charity to gardening for disabled people, Tina Clements has spent more than 30 years supporting the people of Tamworth.
The former Royal Signals PT instructor, who now runs her own ironing and cleaning business, was recently given the honorary title of Alderwoman by Tamworth Borough Council after serving as a councillor for 16 years.
She has sat in a bath full of beans and walked through the night to raise money, organised free school uniforms for families in need, sold poppies for the Royal British Legion, knitted for charity and recently painted a shed for a veteran.
One fundraising challenge even saw her being taken 100 miles from home and left to find her own way back.
Tina has been nominated in the Charity Champion or Volunteer of the Year category of the Your Heroes Awards by fellow fundraiser Brian Broughton MBE.
Brian said: “I am nominating Tina because she has been very dedicated to the community. I met her when she came out of the Army. She worked with me at a supermarket, that was more than 30 years ago. She has done so much for the community and raised hundreds of thousands of pounds for many charities and specifically breast cancer charities.
“She helped disabled people clear their gardens, she just painted a shed for a veteran and organised school uniforms for children who cannot afford new ones. She has been a councillor and chairperson and always has sold poppies for the RBL. She also knits the wooden poppies for remembrance.”
Tina is a former Mayor of Tamworth, long-serving Wilnecote councillor, the dementia ambassador for Tamworth, Royal British Legion Tamworth branch fundraiser and International Women’s Day organiser.
She helped saved Wilnecote Community Centre twice, organised Wilnecote fun day for 15 years, organises an annual Macmillan coffee morning and helped set up a community hub in the youth centre.
Tina, who celebrates her 55th birthday next week, said she felt overwhelmed to have been nominated for a Your Heroes Award Brian, who has been her fundraising comrade for so many years.
She said: “I’m not a person that does things for any sort of reward. I just like to put a smile on someone’s face and that feels reward enough for me.
“I’m a doer. If something needs doing I’d rather just get on and do it myself than fill in forms for someone else to do it.
“I have a lot of older clients with my business who ask if I can help organise someone to do their gardening through the council. Unfortunately that sort of thing has to go through a reporting process and by the time it’s done it might be six weeks. I often just get on and do it myself.”
She said that she and Brian first met in 1996 when they were part of the opening team for Tamworth’s new ASDA supermarket and were soon working together to raise money.