High Wycombe Community Board celebrate the final Proud of Bucks Awards ceremony of the year
The High Wycombe Community Board Proud of Bucks Awards event was held in the beautiful Grade II listed Wycombe Arts Centre, on Desborough Road on 26th July 2023. The vaulted ceiling, pointed arches, church organ and colourful bunting created a celebratory feeling to the event with nearly 70 people packed into the space eager to catch up with old friends, make new connections and celebrate our volunteers. Local community groups hosted stalls to support community engagement and networking for the first half of the evening with food and drink and a special Colin the Caterpillar cake which many were keen to sample.
Wycombe Environment Centre, Growing Hope and Chiltern Rangers gave presentations about their Community Board funded projects and Martin Gallagher, Clare Foundation CEO, who sponsor the awards and everybody reiterated the importance of celebrating and recognising volunteers achievements.
Deputy Lord Lieutenant Dr Sheena Dykes BEM DL, Chairman of Council Cllr Patricia Birchley, Mayor of High Wycombe Cllr Paul Turner and Leader of Buckinghamshire Council Cllr Martin Tett presented the awards to the worthy winners and highly commended who were all delighted to be recognised.
Thank you all the nominees, nominators, judging panel, presenters, community groups and stallholders, Action4Youth; Catch 22; Chiltern Rangers; Empower to Cook; Growing Hope; Grow Together; High Wycombe Shopmobility; Horizon Sports Club; Oasis Partnership; South Bucks Hospice; St Andrews Church; Wycombe District Dementia Action; Wycombe Environment Centre; Wycombe Mind; Wycombe Multicultural Organisation; Youth Enquiry Service, dignitaries and Buckinghamshire Councillors. Thank you to the team at Wycombe Arts Centre for all their help and support leading up to the event and on the night. We couldn’t have done it without you all.
Cllr Lesley Clarke OBE, High Wycombe Community Board Chairman, said:
“To be involved in the Proud of Bucks awards for the High Wycombe Community Board area has been an absolute honour and incredible to see what has been achieved. Thank you to all our community groups and volunteers who work tirelessly to support the High Wycombe community. Thank you for all your hard work, commitment, and enthusiasm. You are an inspiration to us all and by way of your volunteering you encourage and motivate others to volunteer and give their time and energy to help members of our community.”
Local Community Champion
Winner: Elly King
Elly started the Bucks Pet Food Bank in 2020 during Covid after realising that more could be done to support residents to feed their pets and to relieve pet owners of their stress and anxiety. Elly has coordinated the distribution of thousands of meals to animals in High Wycombe and the surrounding areas, working with One Can Trust and Helping Hand to help pet owners. She has liaised with mental health workers, social workers, individuals, and shelters to distribute donations to animals who need it and has provided a listening ear and advice to people in times of hardship.
The support provided by Elly as a volunteer and all the volunteers who support the Pet Food Bank means that pet owners do not have to face the tough decision to give up their pets, which would mean losing the love, companionship, and mental and physical health benefits that pets provide. Elly has her own health issues which sometimes make volunteering challenging but she always puts others first and is described as selfless and never wanting any recognition for the work that she does.
N.B. Elly was unable to attend the event due to ill health and Cllr Sarfaraz Raja, Trustee for One Can Trust collected the award on her behalf. A face to face presentation with Elly and the High Wycombe Community Board Chairman and Vice-Chairman is to be arranged.
Highly Commended: Colin Hingston
Colin has key roles in numerous charities in Wycombe, East Side Youth Centre Ltd, Wycombe Youth for Christ, Wrights Meadow Centre, Lighthouse Central and High Wycombe (children’s holiday club), St. Andrews Church and the High Wycombe Society. Through his actions as Trustee of Eastside Youth Centre, he has kept the Centre running when it was due to close some of it’s groups. The overriding obstacle for all the organisations he is involved with is lack of volunteers and Colin gets stuck in on the ground as well as in director roles.
Through his actions and support to so many charities, Colin makes a huge impact not just young people but to all ages in the community and works tirelessly to make sure there are good facilities and people in place to help support and invest in the High Wycombe community. Colin was described as generous, fun loving, practical, selfless, positive and hard working.
Young Community Champion
Winner: Laura Gonsalves
Laura has contributed to Youth Voice in Buckinghamshire for over 10 years with the aspiration to improve services for young people. Laura’s valuable efforts in Youth Voice and Shout Out for SEND have helped to ensure services respond to the needs of diverse young people and keep the needs and experience of individuals at their heart. She has positively affected services at all levels, from influencing fine details to make events as accessible and enjoyable for young people as possible, to contributing careful reflections and priorities to feed into the Council’s high-level strategies and workstreams. Much of Laura’s work goes unseen from an outside perspective, but those who know her can see her contributions throughout much of our best work. Laura has a Special Educational Need which has impacted her experience of growing up and of education. In addition, she has experienced trauma and bullying in her past. While this has no doubt affected her perception of the world, Laura brings her best self to every task suggested to her. Laura was described as dedicated, optimistic, and enthusiastic.
N.B. — Laura was unable to attend the event but sent a voice note. Quote from Laura — “I would like to say that I am very blown away by the opportunity to win this award. I never thought I would in my 10+ years of doing something like this but I also wanted to say congratulations to the people who were nominated for this award, you all very much deserve the nomination. Thank you so much, sorry I can’t be there.”
A face to face presentation for Laura with the High Wycombe Community Board Chairman and Vice-Chairman is to be arranged.
Community Group Contribution
Winner: Horizon Sports Club
Horizon is a specialist, fully inclusive sports club for children (aged 4 and above) and young adults of all abilities. Providing safe and fun sports sessions for children and young adults with disabilities who find mainstream sports hard to attend. Giving their members the opportunity to be themselves while getting active and feeling like part of a fun accepting group.
Members are able to participate, be challenged and achieve — but they may need a little extra help from time to time, that’s where the inclusive sports club and unique approach comes in. With the right coaching and support amazing things can happen.
The development of the children is huge. Parents say it’s the best part of their child’s week, they can now play a sport they didn’t think they could or have allowed them to develop socially.
They are changing children’s lives, particularly those who find it hard to feel accepted. They treat everyone as an individual and put smiles on children’s faces while they are getting exercise and helping their mental well-being. Horizon Sports Club were described as incredible, inclusive, inspiring, fun, healthy and supportive.
Highly Commended: High Wycombe Shopmobility
Set up in 1994, High Wycombe Shopmobility is a fabulous local charity that offers the free daily hire of scooters or wheelchairs to enable people with limited mobility to get around High Wycombe town centre. The charity is run and managed by a friendly, dedicated team of staff, volunteers, and a board of Trustees.
They are a hard-working small team with the feel good factor, providing a 5 star service and constantly going the extra mile for customers and making them feel special. They are proud of the free service they offer to help 100’s of people, helping them to remain independent to socialise, shop and attend appointments. It’s not just about using the mobility equipment, the customers also enjoy the welcoming, friendly atmosphere in the shop and are made to feel valued and part of the family.
In 2022 they introduced portable travel scooters, which enable people to benefit from their service and take scooters away for weekends or holidays. Through covid Shopmobility only closed for the initial 10 weeks, they then remained open, on reduced hours as their customers relied on their service. Shopmobility were described as valued, friendly, community, passionate, fun, and responsible.
A special posthumous award for Steve Morton
Steve Morton was a well-loved and proactive community member and was nominated for the Local Community Champion award. He died suddenly in Dec 2022 and the judging panel decided to award him with a posthumous award in recognition of the exceptional environmental works he did for the High Wycombe community and beyond.
Steve was part of over 15 local environmental groups including Chiltern Rangers, Revive the Wye, Wycombe Environment and Wycombe Friends of the Earth. Inspired by his concern for environmental degradation, social injustice, and climate change he worked tirelessly to improve both the local and national environment. Steve was humble, kind, dedicated and hard working yet never pushed his work, so no-one was aware of how many groups he was involved with until after his passing.
Steve’s family are very proud that Steve is being remembered in this way and are keen to receive the award. Unfortunately, they were unable to attend the Proud of Bucks awards event on 26th July and the High Wycombe Community Board will be presenting the award to the family later this year.
