A Hayling Island publican who won a regional community award has been praised by MP Alan Mak for her “outstanding and inspirational” fundraising achievements.
Hayley Wallage, who runs the Lifeboat Inn on Hayling’s Seafront, scooped the regional prize in the Enterprise Community Heroes awards, after raising thousands of pounds for local charities.
Now she has been handed a £1,000 from Enterprise Inns to invest back into community focussed initiatives.
To win the award Hayley had to show she had gone beyond the call of duty, and shown a positive impact in the community. Over the past year alone, Hayley has been at the forefront of a number of activities that have raised money for local charities and offered support to local people.
She has supported the local RNLI with donations from a weekly meat raffle and other collections at the pub. In September she initiated a local Alzheimer’s Memory Walk as the nearest event was over 15 miles away and after a successful first year it will return again in 2017.
Hayley runs several groups from the pub including a "meet new friends" coffee morning to enable lonely people to meet new faces in a friendly environment.
In addition to her pub work, she is also a member of a team of four people who help run a junior theatre group in the community giving young people aged nine to 17 a hobby and a chance to shine. The group has just held its third annual music festival, attended by 350 people, with all ticket money donated to charity.
The Lifeboat Inn has also supported events such as the Queens 90th Birthday and helped contribute to the Hayling First Responders, with a defibrillator now installed outside the pub.
Hayley said: “We at the Lifeboat Inn were very proud to receive our award. To some people, their local pub is a lifeline, people that live alone can come in and have a chat or read the paper. They can make friends and are able to become part of a wider circle.
“All the activities and events only become successful if they are supported and our local community do support therefore this award is for all of us, as without our community, it would not have been possible.”
Mr Mak applauded Hayley for her work in the community after visiting the pub, saying the Lifeboat had become part of the lifeblood of the Hayling community.
He said: “A good local pub is far more than just four walls and a bar, and the Lifeboat Inn symbolises everything that is great about the community spirit so often on display across Hayling Island.
“Hayley is an outstanding and inspirational community leader, and she fully deserved to win this award. I look forward to hearing about the good causes that she will no doubt put this money towards.”
The Lifeboat Inn is an Enterprise Inn pub and Divisional Director Matthew Whiting said the standard of entries to the competition had been “incredibly high”.
Picture: Alan Mak behind the bar at the Lifeboat Inn with publican Hayley Wallage, Enterprise regional manager Tony Warnants, and divisional director Matthew Whiting