Wendover & Villages Community Board celebrate their local community Proud of Bucks Awards 2022
The event was held on 1st July 2023 in the local area at Lindengate Charity, outside and was a beautiful atmosphere in the lovely surroundings.
It was a small ceremony, with those who had won awards and their chosen guests, tea, coffee and cake was on offer and the opportunity to network together.
The awards were opened up by the outgoing chair Cllr Mike Collins. The presentations were awarded to the winners by The Chairman of Buckinghamshire Council — Cllr Patricia Birchley with Cllr Steve Bowles, the incoming chair present as well.
The winners were also awarded prizes that were donated by local businesses, thank you to those donations from Rumsey’s Chocolaterie, No 1 High Street, The Bel and Dragon and Costa Coffee.
Cllr Mike Collins said ‘This event allows us at a local level to celebrate the hard work and dedication of members of our local community who strive to support our community to thrive. It wouldn’t be possible without them’’.
Local Community Champion
Winner: Jane Gardiner
Jane has been a Beaver Scout Leader for the last 8 years for Aston Clinton Scouts and makes a massive contribution to the wider Aston Clinton Scouts.
Her contribution to Scouting is massive. This has a big positive impact for the Beaver Scouts that have benefitted from the experiences they have had as well as the wider Aston Clinton Scouts group that benefit from her contribution at camps, events, fundraisers.
In addition to this she and her husband Pete set up and run a ‘Repair Cafe’ in Aston Clinton Church. The repair cafe operates every month in the church and the donations for repairs all go to the church. The Repair Cafe is incredibly well attended, providing a great service locally to save many items being thrown away when they can be repaired and re-used, it raises funds for the church and the people that are involved in the repairs enjoy it. It’s a great community event!
Jane is also an active member of Aston Clinton Society (now treasurer) and is regularly involved in the organised litter picks but more than that she is out every week litter picking the village and encouraging as many other people as she can to get involved!
Her contribution to Aston Clinton Society is also really valued. She inspires others to get involved and leads by example. The cans she collects are all crushed and given to charity where they get paid by weight for the aluminium too!
Highly Commended: Debbie Jones
Debbie does many things for her local neighbours and community. To name just a few; she has volunteered for years at Calibre audio library every week, has looked after neighbours who were shielding or whom were ill, by running errands for them and getting their shopping/medication, volunteers to help in the polling station — spending all day and night stewarding the room and has previously spent overnight helping the council count the votes. She helps in every election.
Debbie checks in frequently with her neighbours on the street — and reporting items to the council — where others can’t do so, looks after their animals whilst they are away, helping neighbours when issues have arisen.
Debbie is a kind, friendly and a selfless lady and she thoroughly deserves to be highly commended for her community spirit.
Young Community Champion
Joint winners: Theo Gardiner and Rhys Winfield
Theo and Rhys have both been Young Leaders for Aston Clinton Beaver Scouts for a number of years. Both of them give up their time every Thursday evening to assist the Beaver Scout Leaders with their colony of 20 enthusiastic and energetic Beavers! They also give up their time for weekend events and sleepovers.
Both of them are incredibly reliable, helpful and inspiring for the Beavers. Both boys have been Beavers, Cubs, Scouts and now Explorers themselves and their experience is invaluable in making the meetings exciting, fun and educational for the Beavers.
The nominator told us
‘Just the other day I heard a Beaver saying how much they wanted to be like Theo when they grow up! They are definitely better at putting tents up and making fires than the adult leaders and they are great at running meetings themselves from time to time!’
Beavers is about giving young children (6–8 years old) an opportunity to experience all sorts of different activities, outside of a school environment to help them develop skills for life, find out what they like and what they don’t like and to inspire them to be active, confident and positive individuals as they grow up. Theo and Rhys play a major part in providing that opportunity and as young people, giving up their time to do it.
Having grown up through the unit from Beaver to Explorer they are giving back to the scout group with their time and enthusiasm.
Theo & Rhys have set a great example to the Beavers and in turn the local community when the colony are out and about on various activities.
Highly Commended: Ryan Hobbs
The nominator told us: “I know Ryan in his position of Vice-Chair of the county-wide Youth Voice forum. In this role, he has championed the voice of young people in diverse and often challenging environments. He has helped to lead the group for a number of years, doing everything he can to ensure Youth Voice is as effective and enjoyable as possible. For example, Ryan is always thinking ahead and doing preparations for upcoming meetings and activities, he always welcomes new members with warmth and wit, and he uses his cheeky and charming nature to challenge the adults around him to do better for young people.”
Ryan also works and volunteers with Wendover Youth Club and Aylesbury Youth Club respectively, thereby helping to keep these important spaces for young people open through direct action.
He is a champion for LGBTQ+ rights and celebrations, and is currently looking to establish a working group for young members of this community and allies for Buckinghamshire. He has big dreams to run a charity in this field, and is prepared to do whatever it takes to achieve this.
Community Group Contribution
Winner: Wendover News
Wendover News has been a local free paper for Wendover, covering local events and promoting local community projects and groups. It is hand delivered to all houses and is a valuable resource.
It was the idea of Jane Larkham who has been editor since it’s inception in September 1989. She attends events, taking pictures etc. She has worked tirelessly for the organisation and expanded the coverage enormously over the years. From a double page to glossy of 20 or more is testament to it’s popularity.
This resource enables all groups to be advertised, helping locals to know what is going on and when, especially those not able to use computers. This resource encourages a sense of community as a result.
Highly Commended: Rhubarb Café
The Rhubard Café, which is organised by Natalie Fieldhouse and a workforce of volunteers is a café held on a Monday 2pm to 4.30pm. The café provides the local community a safe space, a warm welcome, with coffee and freshly baked cakes. It also has a children’s corner with books, toys and colouring.
It offers those within the local community an opportunity to socialise, meet up with friends, make new friends and is often the outing of the week for some.
It is a very inclusive and friendly environment.
