We Are the Champions

Our April 2025 Community Champion Ian Rees, pictured with Community Lives Consortium Support Worker Bev Bristow and Strategic Engagement Manager Emma Shears

It’s rare for a week to go by without someone, somewhere being proclaimed as a champion. Sometimes it’s merited; Rory McIlroy’s recent US Masters win made him only the sixth male golfer in history to complete a career Grand Slam. Last Sunday Liverpool clinched a well-deserved Premier League title. Sometimes it’s a little grandiose. When Donald Trump’s supporters celebrate him as the champion of America’s working classes and of global democracy, not all of us are inclined to celebrate with them. 

When the People’s Library chooses our Community Champions, we recognise character and impact. Our first champion of 2025 is a man who spends his life making other people happy. 

Step forward, Ian Rees.

If you’re part of the Community Lives Consortium family, Ian will be a familiar face. As a volunteer at the Swansea head office, his work helps things run smoothly and his cheerful approach keeps everyone smiling. As a resident at a shared home in Neath, his friendship lifts the spirits of housemates every day. As a member of the Better Together Community Choir, his infectious enthusiasm for singing and socialising is helping this group build the confidence to perform regularly in public. 

The Oxford English Dictionary offers us a range of definitions of a champion.

A champion is someone who has defeated all others in a game, competition, or contest

A champion can also be a person who supports, defends, or fights for a person, belief, right, or principle

Historically, a champion was a warrior or knight who would fight for another

I like all of those definitions, and I like it even more when we combine their meanings. If life is a contest, then the true winners are the people who stand up for the rights of others, and for principles they believe in. Ian Rees believes in the principle that when we work together, spend time together, support each other and make each other happy, life is a lot more fun. That’s why he’s loved and respected by everyone he meets and it’s why he’s our Community Champion for April 2025.

Congratulations, Ian, and thanks for the inspiration.