White Horse News’ Person of the Year award is back – and this year there is a new category, Group of the Year!
As well as recognising a resident who has made a real contribution to the community in 2019, White Horse News readers can now nominate a local group who have made a difference in the town or surrounding villages.
It’s been an exciting year for Westbury and many individuals and groups have worked hard to improve the town, raise money for charity or help other people. With so many people doing great things in their community, we need your help to find them.
For the Person of the Year award you can nominate a friend, family member, community leader, colleague or even someone you don’t know – any person who lives or works in the Westbury area who you think has contributed most to the local community.
For the Group of the Year award you can nominate a group, organisation, or committee – any group that does work in the Westbury area who you think has contributed most to the local community. Don’t worry if not everyone from the group comes from Westbury, what’s important is that the work of the group benefits the town in some way. Perhaps your nominee organises a local event, provides a valuable service to the community, or goes out of their way to make Westbury a better place to live.
The only conditions for both awards are that the person or group is from Westbury or one of the surrounding villages or works in the town. Nominees for the Person of the Year award cannot be someone that has previously won this award.
Nominations must be received by 3pm on Wednesday 8th January. A shortlist of nominees will be published in the next issue of White Horse News. The winner of each award will this year be chosen by a panel of local representatives.
Ian Drew, editor of White Horse News said, “This is a chance to nominate someone or a group who deserves recognition for their outstanding contribution to Westbury over the past year or who has had a big impact on life in the town.
“We’ve introduced the Group of the Year award due to public demand – there are so many fantastic groups in the town who work so hard to give back to the community, and sometimes it can be a bit unfair to single out just one person from that group. This award will be a real opportunity to celebrate and acknowledge the work of these people.”
The Person of the Year award in 2018 went to on-call firefighter Jim Shaw, who has been with the fire service in Westbury for over 30 years
Previous winners were: long-serving GP, Dr Debbie Beale; St John Ambulance volunteer, Lily Munday; former chair of both Westbury and District League of Friends and Sensible Thinking on Patients (STOP) Erica Watson; Sean Price, ex-town crier; Steve Lloyd, chair of Chernobyl Children’s Life Line; the late Dot Whitehead, for her role as Westbury’s Air Ambulance shop manager; funeral director, Arthur Mays who died in 2017; and Henry Leigh, the founder of the Belarussian Ray of Hope.
Nominations can be made by emailing news@whitehorse news.co.uk stating your name, address and contact number, with your nominee’s name and why you are nominating them. (We won’t disclose who has made the nomination). If you have contact details for your nominee, please include these.
