Rotary District 9700 Governor Gary Roberts and his wife Marilyn attended a Yenda Rotary Club meeting recently and presented Mr Allen with the award.

Mr Allen was, for the second time, presented with the highest award that can be bestowed by Rotary Club, a Paul Harris Fellowship.  A second Paul Harris Fellowship is called a Sapphire PH Award and it is exceptionally rare.

This was the first occasion that Yenda Rotary Club has awarded a Paul Harris Sapphire Fellowship in 60 years of the club’s history.

Mr Allen joined Yenda Rotary in November 1988 and has exemplified Rotary’s principal ideal of “Service Above Self” ever since.

He has been club president of Yenda Rotary Club on two occasions, 1993-94 and 2010-11.  He has served as club secretary for the past eight years.

Mr Allen is meticulous in his secretarial work and has a deep knowledge of the workings of Rotary clubs, something that allows Yenda Rotary Club to operate efficiently and cheerfully.  Mr Allen's engineering skills have also been invaluable in designing club facilities and in refurbishing club assets such as the mobile stage.

Mr Allen has always offered himself for service at club fundraising activities and events whenever possible and his friendly and cheerful presence is valued greatly by all the members of Yenda Rotary Club.  

He served as chairman of the Yenda Carols By Candlelight Committee for 21 years, an achievement worthy of the highest recognition on its own.

After the 2012 Yenda floods when the whole town was evacuated, Yenda Rotary started fund-raising to help victims of the floods.  

Mr Allen was one of the leaders of a Yenda Rotary Club committee that distributed $68,000 of donated funds to local community members and families.  

This flood recovery program continued for over a year and distributing the vouchers for food and household essentials took hundreds of man hours of Mr Allen’s personal time.  

Mr Allen has never failed to help others in dire straits when asked to do so.