Tributes paid to Isadora on return to Jamaica
bellmw Bishop Jack and Isadora Aiken, Chair of the conference with naturalist David Bellamy, who gave a talk on the environment, at the Conservation Foiundation Conference, at the Victoria Hall Methodist church. BELLMW
A WOMAN who came to Sheffield from Jamaica in the Sixties, starting work in a cutlery factory and going on to play a prominent role in the life of the community, resulting in an OBE, returned to her home country this week.
Isadora Aiken, who also worked as a bus conductor, became a governor of Hallam University and was Deputy Lieutenant for South Yorkshire.
Other high-profile positions include managing South Yorkshire Women’s Development Trust and Sheffield and District Afro Caribbean Community Association, membership of the board of urban regeneration company Sheffield One and being a trustee of South Yorkshire Community Foundation.
She was awarded an OBE in 2003 for services to education and to the community.
Now she is returning to Jamaica as Isadora Powell with her new husband, Weavill Powell.
South Yorkshire Community Foundation, which raises funds to help local people improve their lives, led the tributes.
Chief executive Pauline Grice praised her “energy, passion and commitment” and said: “She never fails to put a smile on your face.”
Isadora came to Sheffield when she was 16, initially wanting to be a nurse or a teacher, but took a job making cutlery for the Co-op.
She said her passion became the community foundation.
“I always wanted to help people. I wanted to help communities grow and to become sustainable. Working with the foundation has allowed me to do that.”
Another former SYCF trustee, Christopher Jewitt, who stepped down in 2011 after 17 years, presented Isadora with a set of Sheffield steel carving knives on behalf of trustees.
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