West Berkshire Council crowns its Community Champions in annual award night at Shaw House
The Community Champion Awards night shines a light on all those who have made a difference in the district.
The West Berkshire Council initiative is an opportunity to thank people who have made a difference in the year at an award night at Shaw House.
This year’s community champions are Thrishathi Srinivasan as Junior Citizen of the Year, Gillian Hornzee as Volunteer of the Year, Speen Community Café for Community Group of the Year and Susan Cocker for Lifetime Achievement Award.
Chairman of West Berkshire Council Jeremy Cottam said: “The Community Champion Awards are always a fantastic night.
“We were honoured to receive so many different nominations and the judges found it incredibly difficult to choose the winners.
“We want to thank everyone who was nominated and we continue to thank you all for the hard work you put into your communities.”
The Pat Eastop MBE Junior Citizen of the Year Award went to Thrishathi Srinivasan who provides lessons for children who had their education impacted by the Coronavirus pandemic.
She started off teaching close family friends but soon grew into weekly sessions of more children. Money generated from lessons has been donated to Thatcham charity Swings and Smiles.
Highly commented in this category is Waterside Centre young leader Milla Brereton.
Since joining the youth programme with Berkshire Youth, she volunteers as a young leader helping younger participants overcome their fears and try new things.
Gillian Hornzee was recognised as Volunteer of the Year for helping Ukrainian families.
She has helped them find hosts, furniture, toys, clothes, bedding, links to schools, transport, and helps with education.
Highly commended in this category is bell ringer Maureen Velvick.
She has been a member of the bell ringing team for a number of years.
And when the team needed help raising funds for the removal, repair and rehanging of the bells, Maureen lent a helping hand.
Also highly commended in the same category is running coach Irwin Fairclough.
He has been a coach, mentor and shown continuous support to an informal weekly Wednesday running group, which aims to benefit the mental and physical wellbeing of those taking part.
Community Group of the Year went to Speen Community Cafe. For the past 17 months the cafe has been building community in providing a safe space, hosting activities and helping guests learn new skills like cooking, fire safety and textiles.
Highly commended is mental health charity Time to Talk.
The charity has recently had to deal with an increased level of demand and has managed to proactively expand the number of counselling sessions available.
Winning the Lifetime Achievement Award was Susan Cocker. She dedicated her life to Lambourn Parish Council for more than 30 years.
She was a key member of the team that organised the annual exhibition in the Memorial Hall, helped reshape the libraries and many other initiatives.
Highly commended in this category this year is Stephanie Awbery, who has been organising the Berkshire Motor Show for almost 20 years.
Also commended in this category is Bill Graham who has sadly died since his nomination.
Bill dedicated 15 years of his life as a parish councillor in Donnington.
He gained a reputation as the man who could “fix it” and he helped maintain the cricket pavilion, fixed streetlights and fixed the parish council’s property.
He also took part in arranging several social events such as the beacon lightings at Donnington Castle and the annual summer event at the recreation ground.
