National Institute of Disaster Restoration presents award

National Institute of Disaster Restoration presents awardKeywords: Award, Disaster restoration, Cleaning industry

Bill Lakin, Technical Director of Disaster Restoration Limited, the UKs only nationwide company entirely dedicated to fire and flood restoration, is the first nonAmerican to receive the prestigious Martin L. King Award, bestowed by the National Institute of Disaster Restoration (NIDR) on those who have contributed substantially to the advancement of its aims. The NIDR is a member group of the American Association of Specialists in Cleaning and Restoration(ASCR), the largest association of cleaners in the world, and is internationally regarded as the leading authority in disaster restoration.

Bill, whose service to the NIDR "absolutely demands recognition",according to the citation, has been chairman of the NIDR's Education Committee for the past three years. He was presented with the award at the recent (March 2001) annual convention of the ASCR in Colorado Springs, which was attended by more than 750 cleaning and restoration professionals from all over the world.

Making the presentation in person was the NIDR's long-time Technical Director, Marty King, in whose honour the award was named. He told delegates that as chairman of the NIDR Education Committee, it had been Bill's job to pull together the NIDR seminars and convention programmes for the past three years.

In addition, he had single-handedly planned and executed the Institute's first-ever overseas seminar which took place last year in London and which had been described by many of those who attended as the seminar event of a lifetime.

"Bill's pleasant and unflappable manner", said Martin, "hides a tough-minded and disciplined approach to whatever tasks he is given. His patience in cajoling world-class procrastinators into submitting their presentations and biographical details comes close to sainthood, while his sardonic humour has made him an entertaining speaker at several seminars."

The ASCR convention held another pleasant surprise in store for Bill, when he learned of his appointment as the NIDR's chairman-elect, once again the first non-American to occupy that position. He will begin his two-year term as chairman of the Institute at the 2002 convention, to be held in Palm Springs,California, next March.

Meanwhile, Bill will be sharing the expertise he gained during the winter's catastrophic floods in this country – as well as the principles of the unique system for drying masonry buildings with sub-slab flooding that he developed on behalf of the Basildon-based DRL network – with his American colleagues at the Institute's state-of-the-Art seminar in Chicago, next autumn.

For further information, please contact: Mrs Jay Grenby, DRL Press Officer,45 Seymour Road, St Albans, Herts, AL3 5HN. Tel./fax: +44 (0) 1727 862101;E-mail: jaygrenby@aol.com