Dedicated Scout District Chairman Bows Out After 36 Years
For 36 years ex-schoolteacher Janet Lowe has dedicated her spare time energies to controlling meetings for the Someries District Scouts Executive with professional efficiency. Over the years her fund raising ability brought over £60,000 to the District to pay for various important projects. She has now decided the time has come for her to devote more time to her husband Don and her indoor bowls tournaments.
A veteran of almost 500 Scout Executive meetings, Janet was well known for her no nonsense approach to the problem of keeping everyone in order. Members of the executive would often attend just to see her run through any other business with ruthless efficiency. Her pet phrase, delivered crisply with the force and accuracy of a piece of chalk was, “We’ve already dealt with that.”
She was governor of Bushmead School for many years and founder chairman of the nearby 3rd Someries Scout Group for six years until she was asked by District Commissioner Keith Whiteway in 1980 to chair the district meetings.
Her other claim to fame was her fund raising ability. During her time with the Scouts she single-handedly raised well over £60,000. In 1999 she persuaded the Lottery Fund to make a grant of £37,000 towards the cost of removing asbestos from the District Headquarters, building an extension block for the disabled, replacing unsafe electrical wiring and refurbishing the kitchen. It helped to save the building from demolition. Later she obtained a local authority grant of £18,000 to replace fencing and gates around the site. She was awarded a Medal of Merit in 1996, a Bar to the Medal of Merit in 2002 and the prestigious Silver Acorn in 2008 for exceptional services to Scouting.
At her final meeting in June which she chaired with her usual efficiency, District Commissioner Kam Patel presented her with a cut glass carafe just ready to take her favourite red wine. He said, “Janet has been a godsend to the district. She has guided us all through some difficult times with a determined but fair-mined approach. Above all we have benefited hugely from her magnificent fund raising efforts. She will be a hard act to follow.”
