WINNERS of White Horse News’ Person of the Year and Group of the Year for 2023 are Gary Cook, a local fundraiser who has raised nearly half a million pounds for local cancer charities and the Bratton Community Brass Bands for their work in local schools, in broadening access to brass band music in the community and in supporting local events.
Westbury Person of the Year, Gary Cook, created the Rodney Cook Memorial Rally (RCM) in 2017 in memory of his father, Rodney, who died at the Bath Royal United Hospital (RUH) after having cancer. It has become the largest metal detecting rally in Europe and helped Gary and his team raise £100,000 last year for the cancer services at the RUH and Swindon Great Western Hospital with the total raised in the last six years now approaching £500,000.
Bratton Brass Bands were nominated for the work they did last year in supporting local events and in broadening access to brass bands and music in local schools and the local community. They took part in ‘Proms in the Playground’, playing a mixture of classical, traditional and modern music to thousands of children in local primary schools, and started a new ‘Brass Roots’ initiative which is designed to get children into playing brass instruments.
The winners of the competitions, run by White Horse News, were chosen by Westbury Mayor cllr Mike Sutton and White Horse News editor Ian Drew, following nominations made by local people.
On receiving the award, Gary said, “It was a complete shock; completely unexpected. I’ve never had anything like this before and I’m so pleased.
“I don’t do it for the recognition but to raise money for local cancer charities and to remember my dad. If I can help just one family not having to go through what we went through, then that is all the reward that’s needed.
“This award isn’t just for me but for a great team of people who help; you couldn’t do a project of this size without a lot of help. I must mention Lisa, my wife and two very close friends, John Lydal and Dave Krisp who have been involved from the start plus a lot of other people – a page wouldn’t be big enough to list them all. And, of course, the farmers and land owners; we couldn’t do it without them!
“Over the years, the event has grown from really humble beginnings with just a couple of hundred people in a field in the first year. The next year we had 700 people; now we sell out 1,500 tickets in hours – we’re the Glastonbury of the metal detecting world!
“People are coming from all over the world, from Texas, France, Turkey, even Australia, and there’s live music, traders, entertainment and more. We’ve now raised heading up towards half a million pounds and we’re going to keep going until we reach a million.”
Speaking about winning the group of the year award, Mike Strong from Bratton Community Brass Bands said, “We are delighted to have been chosen as winners of the Group of the Year award. We are proud to have been part of a wide variety of community projects and events during 2023 including Proms in the Playground, a national initiative to encourage children to learn to play music. We created a new group called Brass Roots specifically for children and currently have over 20 children attending these sessions each week.
“We also worked with Westbury Lions to create recordings of Christmas music which they used on their Santa float throughout the Christmas season, commemorated 80 years since the evacuation of the village of Imber with a concert in Edington Priory, performed Christmas concerts telling the story of A Christmas Carol in Westbury and Trowbridge and played at many other local events throughout the year.
“We now have a membership of over 70 players in our organisation and under our musical director, Kyle Blake, we have another busy year ahead including starting a new adult beginner group, performing film music concerts in February, Proms in the Playground and taking part in many other concerts and local events.
“We would like to thank Brass Band England, Music for All, Westbury Lions and Westbury Area Board for all their support during 2023 and look forward to entertaining the local community during 2024.
“New players are always welcome and if you would like to join us, support us or find out more about us, please visit our website www.brattonsilverband.com or find us on Facebook.”
Runners Up
Other nominations for the Person of the Year were Ryan Child, events manager at Westbury Town Council; Robin-Mark Schols, creator of the Hilly Helmet Challenge; and Nicki Demaine, one of the organisers of the Westbury Sunday brunches.
The other organisations to receive nominations for Group of the Year were Westbury Area Network volunteers who operate both the food bank and community fridge; and Westbury United after winning the Wiltshire Premier Shield for the first time since the Second World War.
For more information about the Rodney Cook Memorial Rally, visit www.rodneycookmemorial.co.uk.
