Angela Daymond

Family : Following a secretarial career in a London advertising agency, I married in 1965 and spent 2 years travelling the world with my husband, Mike (also a Town Councillor) who was an Engineer Officer on Shell oil tankers.  We than settled down to family life, moving to Verwood in 1976.  Our two children went through the local school system, followed by college and university.  We have four grandchildren.

Community : In order to maintain my secretarial skills, in 1978 I became actively involved in the local community as one of the founder members of “Viewpoint”, the village magazine, cutting the stencils on a manual typewriter for the first few issues and Chairman/Editor for the 8 years prior to the handover to Airborne Printing in 1994.

 Fed up with playing badminton in the Memorial Hall and tennis on a poor grass court in Moorlands Road, I became actively involved in the campaign and fundraising for the Leisure Centre and Potterne Park, as well as Secretary of Verwood Community Association.  I was also Carnival Secretary for three years, a “Home Welcome” representative for Verwood (3 years) and a mealtime Supervisor at Hillside School for 7 years, including taking part in the annual staff pantomime.  More recently I was instrumental in bringing movies to the Memorial Hall.

Work and Retirement : In 1984 I attended a “Brush Up Your Office Skills” course because technology had moved on considerably since I had been in the work environment.  Starting part-time, I progressed to Directors’ P.A. at two large local companies and took early retirement in 1999, just when EDDC decided they would like to build the Community Centre and a Day Care Centre on the Recreation Ground.  For a year I lobbied as many people as possible on the issue and found that I was far from alone in my condemnation of the proposal to take up any of the Recreation Ground and, with others, set the wheels in motion for a Public Meeting and subsequent Parish Poll.  I was Secretary of the Bakers Farm Community Centre Association but had to resign when I joined the Town Council in order that I may speak freely at Council meetings on matters regarding the Community Centre.  I was a Town Council representative on the Steering and Consultative groups for the Community Centre, now known as “The Hub”.

The future : There is a future for the Memorial Hall which I will continue to actively support.  But I am also a volunteer at “The Hub” as part of the team working to make it successful and self-financing as much as possible and well-used by all age groups.  Of course this will take time, but I believe that the skills I have gained through working within our expanding community since 1976, will help me work for the benefit of all residents.  As well as being well-known for being a friendly place, Verwood has a community spirit, one to be nurtured and extended.  It’s a wonderful place in which to live.