Citizen Of The Year 2019 announced
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Turriff And District Rotary Club have crowned Mabel Webster as this year's Citizen Of The Year.
Since its inception in 1978 the competition has been recognising individuals who have made an outstanding contribution to the local community, and this year's recipient is no different.
Nominated for her dedicated work with Girlguiding locally, Mabel has seen thousands of girls pass through the organisation since she returned in a voluntary capacity 30 years ago.
In this time she has held various roles at local and county levels, including leader, section advisor and district commissioner.
It was when her eldest daughter joined the Guides that Mabel became involved, and explaining she said: "We were at the dancing with the girls and I said to Ada [Littlejohn], commissioner at the time, 'is there not a camp this year?'
"I only asked because camp was one of my main memories of Guides, but I hadn't heard anything about one.
"It turned out that the leader hadn't organised a camp, but the assistant leader had been keen.
"That was the Thursday, and on the Saturday I had a phone call from Ada asking if I would be able to help them out at camp a few weeks later - and that was it!"
In addition to her role within unit teams, she has also supported lots of girls from across the Banff and Buchan county - including many from Turriff - through their Duke Of Edinburgh awards at bronze, silver and gold levels.
"I initially started to learn about the awards when my daughter and her friends wanted to do it, but the person to led the awards in the area at the time was looking to step down.
"I never really intended for it to become what it has, but it's really nice to be able to see girls all the way through the award."
The dedication of Mabel and her helpers has established Banff and Buchan county as one of the highest ranking areas in Scotland for the number of Girlguiding members aged over 16 achieving top tier awards, as the enthusiasm for Duke Of Edinburgh awards continues.
As well as her work with Girlguiding, Mabel is also the secretary of the Turriff Pensioner's Group.
She is also a member of Forglen SWI and the Friends Of Forglen Hall committee.
On being awarded the accolade, Mabel said: "It's a little surreal, I never expected it.
"It really is an honour."
