Gerry Armes and Laurie Upshon
A thank you
GERRY ARMES
Gerry has shown an overwhelming commitment over a number of years to the work of the Journalists' Charity in a voluntary capacity. This has involved an active participation with the welfare of members of his former profession (photo-journalism) with personal involvement in cases of hardship and in significant long-term fundraising to meet their needs.
He has taken the responsibility for ensuring that journalists living in the West Midlands conurbation are supported in the flowing ways:
Making them aware of the help the charity can provide:
**By supporting any application for help that is submitted to the charity, often by initial contact with the applicant and subsequent submission of their request to the Trustees.
**Raising significant amounts of money by arranging fund-raising events - usually between £15,000 and £20,000 each year.
**Arranging visits to the charity's homes to enable potential residents view these facilities.
Gerry has a drive and energy allied with a tenacity that ensures that the needs of those he comes into contact are met. Those same qualities are exhibited when he organises fund raising-lunches and events. These have become firmly established in the local calendar.
His commitment to the work is such that he has ensured that the work will continue when he stands down as Chairman of the West Midlands' Committee in 2008, having reached his 80th birthday, by gathering a group of volunteers to take over the roles he has performed.
His commitment has been longstanding:
Became a member in 1960 and commenced his task in making the charity known and persuading colleagues to join and subscribe. One significant example was persuading a colleague to run in the London Marathon to support the charity.
He became a Trustee of the charity in 1995, representing the West Midlands and continues in that role to date. He is viewed by the Trustees as an example to follow and is always willing to pass on his experience and knowledge to others and he was made an honorary Life President as a result upon his election to the Trustee board in 1995.
LAURIE UPSHON
Laurie Upshon was Controller of News & Operations at ITV Central from 1990 to September 2005. He was appointed to the board of Central Independent Television in 1993.
He began as a print journalist in London and his ITV career started at Southern Television in 1976. He was part of the launch team of TVS in 1981 and at Central, he was responsible for creating Britain's first automated newsroom at Abingdon in 1988 for which he won the national Royal Television Society Award for technological innovation.
Laurie has also won RTS national awards for Daily News programming, and the gold award at the Worldfest Flagstaff International Film Festival for coverage of Breaking News Stories. In October 2005 he was awarded the Royal Television Society's top honour, the Baird Medal, for an outstanding contribution to the Television industry (Recent previous recipients have included Chris Tarrant, Jasper Carrott, Bob Monkhouse and Lenny Henry). He co-ordinated the ITV Heads of News group for 11 years
Bob Warman, Rod Ackrill, Richard Littlejohn, Bob Warren, Gerry Armes
Bob Warman, John James, Tony Pearsall
Raffle star prize winner, John Lahiffe , receives two tickets to New York from Ursula Hammond from Continental Airlines
West Midlands Charity Lunch 2008
Daily Mail columnist Richard Littlejohn has helped the West Midlands district raise nearly £20,000 for the Charity at its annual celebrity lunch in Birmingham. Littlejohn was guest speaker at the lunch held at the newly renovated Holte Suite within the Aston Villa Football Stadium complex. It was attended by more than 300 of the region's top business and media figures.
The controversial columnist worked in Birmingham in the 1970s before moving to London. In a lively session he took questions from the guests as well as recalling some of his favourite stories about his working life in the Midlands and in Fleet Street..
The West Midlands District has been holding annual celebrity lunches since 1993 with long term sponsorship from businessman Rod Ackrill and his company Chase Midland.
This year more than £8,000 was raised in the raffle and auction with a top bid of £2,000 which secured a Grand Prix hospitality package donated by Renault UK.Continental Airlines provided the star prize for the Raffle, a pair of Business First tickets on its service from Birmingham to New York.
District Chairman Gerry Armes said: "All our speakers give their time free to us and we are very grateful to Richard for agreeing to speak this year. We also received terrific support from our sponsor and businesses who donated fabulous prizes for the raffle and the auction."
Picture shows the top Raffle Prize winner John Lahiffe from Tourism Ireland with Ursula Hammond from Continental Airlines, Richard Littlejohn, lunch Sponsor Rod Ackrill (far left) and West Midlands District chairman Gerry Armes (far right).
West Midlands Note
We held another successful greyhound night for the 29th successive year. Although prices have increased at Hall Green Stadium, thanks to the generous sponsorship of Scottish and Newcastle Breweries, we hope to have raised the usual £3,000 for the Fund.
Late last year, thanks to the generosity of Doug Ellis, an honorary Vice President, we held a luncheon to thank our regular supporters of our celebrity luncheons, we also invited other local organisations to add their support, particularly the financial intuitions.
Members of the district committee and West Midlands members were the first visitors to visit the now homes in Dorking now known as Pickering House and Harmsworth House.
The verdict FABULOUS!