An Anglesey shopkeeper’s selling powers have sent droves of Amlwch residents flocking to buy into his programme of physical activities.

John Llywelyn Pritchard, 51, is the Community Champions Coordinator in Amlwch, a role created and funded by the Sports Council for Wales and the Welsh Assembly Government to get more adults off the sofa and into regular physical activity.

Better known as ‘John the Shop’, having owned a newspaper shop for 27 years in Amlwch, the father-of-four has developed and instigated numerous clubs, sports groups and events since he took up the role last year and has recruited several other Community Champions to enthuse locals to get active.

Among the myriad activities that John has energetically launched include indoor bowls, tennis, badminton, New Age Kurling*, Frisbee Golf**, rounders and fun football. He has also brought boxercise, aerobics and pilates to the rural communities of Penysarn and Rhosybol, and Wii Fit sessions for computer savvy islanders.

John explains, "I was born and bred in Amlwch, so there’s not a lot of people that I don’t know in the area. My role is about motivating people in the community and I’ve found that word of mouth, a ‘give it a go’ mentality and making activities fun are what make the scheme successful.

"This is our second year of running the Community Champions programme in the Amlwch area with activities for anyone aged between 16 up to 67, both male and female. People can do as little or as much as they want to do. We’ve had people taking part in the Anglesey Fun Run, Sports Relief Mile Run, Ty Gobaith Santa Fun Run and also led the first Leg of the Anglesey walking festival where we had 47 people taking part."

Although a part-time role, John is making significant headway in attracting men and women, as well as boys and girls, to interact with each other in a non-competitive environment.

Activities have been run alongside the Amlwch Luncheon Club and Amlwch W.I, including bowls, and dance, whilst the Amlwch Welsh learners group have been taking part in badminton, walking and bowls and Amlwch Primary School staff have been letting off steam with boxercise sessions.

The newly formed Amlwch Sunday league football team have kicked off in vain and the second year of Amlwch Community Champions Christmas Walks saw 27 islanders take part in long and short walks, raising £50 for Ty Gobaith.

Amlwch Community Champions also hosted this year’s "Camu Allan" Christmas walk that saw 100 islanders take in the spectacular views along the Anglesey Coastal Footpath.

To date, John has prompted countless volunteers to attain qualifications, to the extent that he now has six walk leaders, nine first aiders, two football leaders and one other volunteer pursuing coaching qualifications.

Added to those accolades, John’s tireless enthusiasm has clearly inspired one of his Community Champions to great things, with Wilf Sharpe, 67 from Bull Bay winning Volunteer of the Year at the 2008 Anglesey Sports Awards in November.

Wilf said, "The award was a surprise that I didn’t expect because I’ve just been enjoying myself. I started two or three years ago with John. Me and a friend walked a lot locally and then started to go out with John and his walking group and then I began helping with the football and rounders. We all bounce off each other and have a bloody good laugh. For me it opened up a new door and got me involved in new things in the community."

Chair of the Sports Council for Wales, Philip Carling, says:

"Our mission is to get more people in Wales more active, more often. The Community Champion project is designed to use the skills of unique individuals in our communities to kickstart physical opportunities for adult, sedentary groups as well as families."