Last week I briefly mentioned the Hartlepool Heroes awards night and this week I want to go into a little bit more detail about the awards ceremony and what the event was all about.
When I first started campaigning in Hartlepool, I was overwhelmed by the community feeling across town – this feeling has been consolidating ever since. People of all ages and from all walks of life take it upon themselves to give back and improve the lives of those around them. They don’t expect any acknowledgement for the work that they do, but when Frances Connolly from the PFC Trust approached me with the idea for an awards ceremony to celebrate Hartlepool’s Heroes, I was delighted to get on board.
Many of you may have been involved with the Hartlepool Heroes process – whether it be through nominating Heroes in the 11 categories or voting for your people’s choice. While many of the categories had a great number of nominees, these were whittled down to three in each, and people from across town came together for the awards ceremony evening.
I’m sure anyone who attended the event would agree with me that it was a very emotional evening. I was moved listening to the reasoning behind the nominations of all those shortlisted and would like to take this opportunity to once again congratulate all those shortlisted.
While it would be impossible for me to mention all those shortlisted and the winners of each category I was particularly impressed by our young Heroes – Isaac Parks who won the Young Carer Award; Jessica Franklin who won the Young Adult Carer Award; and Ben Turnball, who was shortlisted for the Sports Initiative Award for setting a world record for completing three triathlons in three days at just 14 years of age!
There were lots of familiar faces at the awards ceremony and I am sure many of the winners have had a positive impact on some of your lives – notably Hartlepool Big Town Tidy Up who were winners in the Green Community Champion Category; Leslie Gibson who was successful in the Lifetime Achievement Award Category; Les and Jackie Watts in the People’s Choice and of course our Volunteer of the Year the late Gillian Holbrook, Gillian’s husband accepted this award on her behalf.
Overall, a thoroughly enjoyable evening celebrating our Heroes, and I am hopeful that we can make this an annual event! Congratulations again to all those nominated, shortlisted and of course the winners.