A volunteer from Burnham who has helped hundreds of young people get involved in sport was thanked in person by London 2012 chief Lord Coe on Saturday (July 27th).
Jonathan Smith, 21, received a VIP invitation to meet Sebastian Coe at the official opening of the Copper Box Arena in London’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park during the Anniversary Games.
The arena, which hosted handball events during last year’s Olympics, has been re-opened to the public to mark the one-year anniversary of the Games.
Jonathan is one of 70 volunteers across the UK recognised as ‘Community Games Shining Lights’ in recognition of their efforts in organising sporting and cultural activities.
He organised two Community Games events and has another two planned, and was also one of the organisers of the recent Burnham Youth Festival weekend.
Jonathan, who was also awarded the SASP Community Games honour at the Somerset Sports Awards last month, told Burnham-On-Sea.com: “The day went very well – it was great to be thanked by Lord Coe for all the volunteering work I have done with community games in Burnham. I felt really proud to represent Burnham-On-Sea at such a big event.”
Somerset Activity and Sports Partnership director Colin Johnson said: “Jonathan been working tirelessly to ensure people in the Somerset area are able to avail of sport and cultural activities through the Community Games programme.”
