Luke Kitching - Luton Irish Person of the year

Luton Irish Forum’s own Luke Kitching has won Luton and District Irish Person of the Year 2022. This is a prestigious annual event and the award is sponsored by Gerry Taylor Irish Butcher.

 Luke is a Trustee and Treasurer at Luton Irish Forum. During lockdown, Luke was part of LIF's Befriending Service, keeping in touch with many isolated members and doing their weekly food shop. He was part of an initiative that collected 8,436 food items for a Christmas Food Bank Appeal for Luton Food Bank, Noah Enterprise and two local schools. On receiving the award, Luke said, “I feel honoured to have been recognised by my community.”

When Luke is not involved in local charity and voluntary work, he is teaching Irish dancing and has danced at World Championship level. Luke believes that Irish dancing has instilled in him great life skills as well as giving him some fantastic friendships.  He has recently passed his ACCA Accountancy exam.

What Luke loves most about volunteering is “seeing the amount of people that our work benefits across the wider community through all the different services offered.”