West Berkshire Community Champion Awards honour residents for contribution to life in the district in ceremony at Shaw House

Community heroes have been honoured for their contribution to life in West Berkshire.

The annual Community Champion Awards, organised by West Berkshire Council, are a way of saying thank you to the people who have done something special for their local community and to honour those individuals and community groups who have gone above and beyond to support residents throughout West Berkshire this year.

The 2022 Community Champions are – Junior Citizen of the Year: Swara Dasarwar; Volunteer of the Year: Sarah Johnson; Community Group of the Year: Purley Sustainability Group; and Lifetime Achievement Award: Mike Warner.

The judges were so impressed with the quality of nominations this year that they awarded a number of Highly Commended certificates too.

The winners were presented with their awards by West Berkshire Council chairman Rick Jones at a ceremony at Shaw House.

Their details will also be recorded in the Roll of Civic Awards.

Junior Citizen of the Year Swara helped set up a charity coffee morning in Newbury Town Hall last summer, where the proceeds helped to provide toys and equipment for pupils at The Castle School. The group managed to raise a staggering £1,650.

Volunteer of the Year Sarah began volunteering for Step by Step in July 2017 and has volunteered as an emergency bed host where she supports West Berkshire with any unaccompanied asylum seeking child (UASC) needing immediate accommodation once they arrive in the country.

She also helps these children adapt to their new home by helping to buy clothes, register with a GP and helps them learn English.

Claire Jones, who was considered the driving force behind the Inkpen Pavilion Project, which opened in 2022, was Highly Commended in this category.

The project took four years to complete and raised a staggering £500,000.

Nicola Swan was also Highly Commended. She has volunteered as a Community First Responder, where she averaged 30 hours a week and from November 2021 to October 2022, she logged 1,444.5 hours, which was 84 per cent of the total coverage for the responder team.

In addition to emergency response, Nicola gave talks, trained others and provided medical assistance at community events.

She was also instrumental in developing a process that reduced the queues at the local pharmacy during the lockdown and organised the rota for marshals at the flu and Covid-19 jab at the local surgery.

Community Group of the Year winner was the Purley Sustainability Group.

It was founded on February 28, 2020, and encourages active travel, helps improve water quality, initiates, co-organises and promotes a discounted solar panel scheme, as well as creating a monthly repair café.

Phoenix Lacrosse Club was Highly Commended in the community group category.

It was set up just over a year ago when one of the few state schools in the UK to play lacrosse, St Bartholomew’s School, in Newbury, decided to stop competing in the sport.

Phoenix Lacrosse Club now has more than 65 members, aged 11 to 18, and has played more than 600 hours of sport, including more than 47 matches and four tournaments against other schools.

It is taking lacrosse to other local schools and training officials too.

Cold Ash FC was also Highly Commended.

Since 2004, Cold Ash FC has provided grassroots football to children of all abilities and backgrounds and recently launched Cold Ash Girls FC to enable girls to participate in the sport.

The group worked with schools in football development and did some fundraising with Greenham Trust for a project to bring more girls into football.

In 2022 Cold Ash FC provided football for more than 300 children, all supported by 45 volunteers.

The Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Mike Warner, who recently retired from Padworth Parish Council after 42 years, with the last five years as chairman.

He has also been an active member of the Padworth Common Committee for 44 years – 25 years as secretary and 10 years as chairman.

Mike is also in charge of the local Neighbourhood Watch and a member of the Neighbourhood Advisory Group for the last 30 years.

He spent five years as church warden, 30 years as sidesman and finally became a police volunteer for six years to keep Mortimer Police Station active for as long as possible.

Rita Curran, who has been involved in Scouting within West Berkshire for decades, was Highly Commended.

She currently runs the 95th Tilehurst Group, Cubs and Scouts. She trained new leaders whenever needed and helped to re-open the group, which initially operated from her home.

Robin Strapp, the director and producer of Newbury Youth Theatre for 35 years, was also Highly Commended.

He has helped hundreds of young people enjoy and take part in theatre and takes Newbury Youth Theatre to perform at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.