NK’s Community champions awarded

Each one was a finalist within the NK Community Champion Awards 2024 which looks to award and applaud those who make a significant contribution to life locally through their generosity of spirit, voluntary contributions and community-minded action.

They came together for a celebration at the Hub in Sleaford on Wednesday a week ago where their stories were shared and an ultimate champion within each category named.

They were singled-out from almost 100 nominations across 11 categories. From Simon Enstone delivering a complex community-wide fast fibre broadband installation to North and South Rauceby, and Janet Johnson committing 62 years to Silk Willoughby Church, to The Broken XI Cricket Team in Holdingham supporting men’s mental health, Kei Bailey of Heckington encouraging and entertaining through theatre, Hannah McFaul enlivening community spirit in Navenby by initiating youth clubs and village activities or young Amelia Clough of Greylees undergoing clinical trials for her own rare kind of diabetes and fundraising for others affected.

Each winner spoke of the pleasure their activities bring to themselves, the sense of contributing to something bigger and how being helpful gave them reason to get up; the enjoyment and pride they feel in making a positive difference and the love they have for their community was summed up by Longstanding Contributor Janet Johnson as, ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’.

District Council Leader Coun Richard Wright told them: “You are the people who make our communities happier, healthier and more supportive places to live. You really are the champions of, from and for our communities, and I thank you all, for all that you do.”

Compere Melvyn Prior said the evening had been ‘totally inspiring’.

Fittingly, the evening also featured a performance of the winning 2024 Song for Lincolnshire by Ian Tumilty which celebrates all of the unsung heroes operating within communities.