Alsager Rotary Club Citizen of the Year 2020 – Kath Reader

This year’s award was presented on Monday 14th at a dinner arranged by the Citizen’s Award Committee.

Present were: Vice -Chair Lynn, Ian White, Ron Tyson representing Rotary and Kath Readerand husband Geoff.

Kath was appointed to the Stoke-on-Trent Magistrates Bench in 1987, sitting at Fenton and Newcastle, serving for 27 years. She was a member of the Juvenile / Youth Panel and chaired the panel for three years, becoming Bench Chairman 2007-9. She was also a member of the Family Panel. In the early 90s she led the National Towns-Women’s Guilds campaign to get domestic violence considered as a defence to homicide and this led to an invitation to co-deliver Domestic Abuse Awareness sessions to magistrates and court users across Staffordshire.

As a magistrate Kath chaired a number of multi-agency groups, organising open days at the
courthouses and led community engagement projects for the Courts and Probation Services. She was vice chair of the Staffs Probation Committee and then a board member for 6 years, chairing the Probation Partnership group and sitting on a number of Priority Task Groups.

She joined the U3A when she decided it was time to leave the Bench and was looking for another
interest. The Publicity committee soon became her role and then two years as vice chair, followed by three as chair. Kath started the Discussion Group in 2013 and co-organises the Talk Time programme.
She represented the U3A on Alsager Partnership initially, being invited on to the Management Team
and becoming vice chair.

Then, Kath believed at that time, came probably the most important thing she’d ever done – leading
the Dementia Friendly Community Project for the Partnership. They gained the DFC status in 2017 –
being the first in Cheshire East and she has since been invited to a number of partnerships to talk
about how they set it up. All their activities are for people living with dementia and their carers. In
normal times they have a monthly Memory Café and Activities Session, which are currently replaced
by zoom sessions offering quizzes, bingo and entertainment. There are now several DFCs locally.

They have around 3,500 Dementia Friends in the Alsager area. Alsager Town has been enormously
supportive of the project – schools, organisations, council, churches and businesses have made it a
real community project.

A very full life with significant achievements makes Kath a worthy recipient of this year’s award.