Month: October 2015

It’s been a busy week for nominations in the Love Barrow Awards, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have room for more – you have until November 8th to get them in, so head over to the nominations section of the site if you know of someone worthy of a nomination, it’s a great way to say “Thank You”.

As I’ve gotten a bit behind with blog posts, I’ve decided to run with a weekend summary this week and give you a glimpse of some of the nominations, maybe it could inspire to think of other worthy nominees?

Here’s the first weekend summary, look out more over the next day or two….

Firstly we have a couple of Sports Volunteer Category nominees – Paul Kell and Dave Farrish.

Starting with Dave, he has shadowed his partner, Sonja Foster, as a Run Leader for both Parkside Panthers and Duddon Dragons for many years now and has been a stalwart volunteer at Barrow parkrun from the very beginning.  Dave is there before anyone else every Saturday to help set out the parkrun course for the hundreds who take part.

Dave is committed to encouraging and helping people to get fit whatever their age or level of fitness.  He shows understanding and is caring because he been through the process himself and he can relate to his own personal experiences of being unfit to being able to run a 10k race and in the process of it all losing weight, feeling positive, happier and becoming healthier.

He is selfless and gives up his own personal free time to help others throughout the year for no other reason than the satisfaction he gains from seeing other people succeed.

Top effort Dave!

Onto Paul – Paul is a well known face on the local junior football scene – having been involved for over ten years now. Manager, coach, ref, linesman, pitch marker-off, kit washer, taxi-driver, DIY man, you name it, he’s done it!

Earlier this year Paul was instrumental in setting up a new Junior section at Barrow Wanderers football club  – a FULL junior section, covering all the age ranges – in total an amazing EIGHT TEAMS!

This provides a footballing opportunity for around 120 local kids! Paul has used his persuasive skills to negotiate sponsors for kits too!

One of the most comprehensive nomination forms we’ve ever seen tells pretty much of Paul’s life story in supporting kids football, way to much to feature in this blog post, but it will all be read and digested by the judges when nominations close.

Well done to both Paul and Dave.

 

 

Our first nomination in the Teacher of the Year category this year is MIKE WALSH.

 

Where do we begin in telling you about Mike? We always make a point of explaining that we judge the awards solely on the information supplied on the nomination forms – with Mike we have enough detail on the form to fill a few of these blog posts!

“He is a amazing outgoing teacher that will go above and beyond for his students and Co workers.”

“He loves his job and everything that goes with it. ”
As well as teaching full time, Mike is a personal tutor and has trained as a counsellor in the evenings for 3 years so that he can help students even more.

He has been a volunteer counsellor for Action For Children for over a year and is now counselling for SAFA as well.

Mike has regularly helped fundraise for the local NAS and has done the K2B and C2B, training until late into the evening after work and marking/planning. He is always helping neighbours and does jobs for an elderly lady who lives in his street. He has 2 allotments as he is keen on healthy eating and is always happy to help allotment neighbours with jobs or advice.

He also gives away a lot of produce to people he thinks would appreciate it.

He has the attitude that he is here to help and that’s exactly what he does.

I told you there was plenty on his form – and I’m still reading!

Sounds like a top guy and a really deserving nominee for a Love Barrow Award.

Do you know a teacher who goes that extra mile? Nominations are open now!

Our first nomination in the environmental category this year is for the team who look after Barrow Park – some call them Park Wardens, some Park Rangers, some Park Keepers and others call them gardeners!

Whatever you call them, the team from Continental Landscapes who look after the park for the people of Barrow do a fantastic job. The park looks better than ever. A measure of this is at the weekly parkrun, which regularly attracts visitors from afar, they all, without fail, comment about the beauty of our park. Some have been heard to say it’s the most beautiful park they’ve seen, I’m not going to argue, I couldn’t agree more!

Well done to the team and long may you continue in your work, keeping our park right up there with the best in the country!

Do you know of a person or group worthy of a nomination for a Love Barrow Award? Nominating is so easy, just head over to the nomination section of this website and follow the easy steps, it’s a great way to say thank you!

Diana has been nominated in the Courage category of the 2016 Love Barrow Awards.

Diana Burns is a well known figure locally, she has been fundraising for charity for over 6 years now including the Barrow Firefighters appeal and the defibrillator appeal. These were causes close to Diana after she was rescued from a house fire and resuscitated. This year Diana was diagnosed with breast cancer. She has had 6 rounds of chemotherapy and a lumpectomy and the next stage of treatment is radiotherapy. Throughout her illness she has continued to fundraise, this time supporting Breast Cancer Care. She has stood in the market doing a tombola stall the day after a chemo session, she arranged a sponsored head shave and the highly successful Summer Fun Day in Barrow park,  organised a sponsored sky dive, sponsored chest wax and raffles.

(Diana is a huge Eddie Stobart fan – she’s seen here in the cab of one their trucks midway through her chemo treatment)

She has already started planning next years Funday and the Oncology unit at FGH will benefit.

So far between fundraising and sponsorship for a marathon that her friend is running she has raised  in excess of £3000 since her diagnosis in May.

The nomination form closes with a fitting statement – “Fighting breast cancer Diana has continued to be a source of inspiration to all. She is a dedicated friend and a relentless fundraiser.”

Hi Everyone,

After just over a week we’ve received over 20 nominations for various categories in the Love Barrow Awards. I’m here to give you a glimpse into some of the stories and maybe inspire you to nominate someone yourself?

First up this year for the 2016 awards we have a nomination for Citizen of the Year – NICKY GUEST

Nicky is a counsellor at SAFA , a self harm group in Barrow – the nomination form says she works tirelessly trying to raise funds for them , as they need every penny they can get to keep providing a truly vital service.

The nomination form is a wonderful summary of Nicky’s character – “Nicky is just great, she is funny , kind , caring , patient, she believes completely in SAFA .”

The people who benefit from Nicky’s work are those who self-harm. they benefit from the work she does, not only does she counsel people that need help, she also tries to raise money to help ensure the service keeps running.

Just recently she had her head shaved to raise funds for SAFA – she really does care about the cause!

The nomination was made anonymously, which is absolutely fine, we welcome all nominations, just head over to the nomination section of this website and it’s really easy to nominate someone!