Month: December 2015

UPDATE: The People’s Choice Award and Voting

Love Barrow Admin

First off. Wow! In just over 24 hours we have had 1,366 qualified votes… It is very clear that the People’s Choice Award is something that the people of the Barrow Borough want! Thank you all for getting behind the finalists and taking time to vote for them. What isn’t so clear is who is going to win! The voting is very close… very tense as we watch the votes come in at Love Barrow HQ!

However, some people’s enthusiasm has gotten the better of them and they have been voting for the same finalist multiple times. To the extreme! We kept the system as open as possible to allow for multiple votes across the board so people could vote for multiple finalists as well as allow a reasonable amount of multiple votes for individual finalists. We are all used to this style of voting system from ‘X-Factor’ and ‘Strictly’.

In the last 24 hours though we have had a HUGE volume of votes from a few email addresses. This skews the voting results quite badly and turns ‘The People’s Choice’ into ‘The Person’s Choice’ which although doesn’t break any rules, does go against the spirit of the award. As the vote is free there is no limiting factor (such as the cost of a text or phone call in TV voting).

So a few calls have been made to the committee and they have decided to place a cap on multiple votes from the same email. In the interest of preventing any abuse of this cap, we aren’t going to announce what that cap is although rest assured it is a sensible number and if you have already voted multiple times… some of those votes will be counted as long as they are below the cap.

This cap means that every finalist is treated the same, avoiding favouritism while at the same time not completely overturning the hours(!) some people have spent in voting for their favourite finalist.

We want the People’s Choice Award to be fun. We want the finalists to see the community get behind them and show how much of a difference they make. We also want the People’s Choice Award to be fair and based on merit rather than who can vote the most number of times.

Keep voting. Keep sharing. Keep encouraging others to vote. We all know that every finalist deserves recognition and are all worthy winners.

That is what makes them finalists!

[DKB url=”http://goo.gl/forms/9tNU22G3H5″ text=”VOTE NOW” type=”large” width=”175″ color=”#f7b2bf” opennewwindow=”no”]

[ideabox]Remember: If you want to vote please use the voting form, not the comment box or Facebook page![/ideabox]

New Award for 2016: The People’s Choice Award!

Love Barrow Admin

Every year the Love Barrow team are asked a simple question:

“How can people vote for the nominee they want to win?”

Until now, we have not been able to answer that question.  The nominees for each category are provided by you, the community, and then judged by the voting panel, made up of committee members, previous winners and sponsors.  This was a conscious decision, to make the judging about the nominees and the work they do rather than a popularity contest.

Yet it is clear that the community wanted something we were not providing.  We take that seriously.

So, we came up with the People’s Choice Award, a new award that is solely chosen by you in addition to the judged categories.  We are all really excited by this new award as it is an opportunity for the community to get involved in the judging process.  It is a chance for you to get your voice heard to support the nominees you want to win.

The People’s Choice Award is an on line vote, the candidates are the short-listed finalists from each category.  The closing date for voting is February 21st and the winner, decided by the most votes, will be announced on the awards night, March 11th.

The vote is open to anyone who wants a nominee to win the People’s Choice Award… It doesn’t matter if you are outside the Barrow Borough!  If you want a nominee to win the People’s Choice Award you can and should vote for them.

The on line vote is free and you can vote as many times as you want.  Each vote is qualified as a ‘real person’ by email.

Many of our local community heroes don’t know how special they are and what a difference they make.  They certainly don’t shout about what they do.  You can help them by encouraging others to vote by sharing links and the text codes on Facebook and Twitter, supporting the nominee you would like to receive the People’s Choice Award.

You can vote here!

[ideabox]Remember please use the voting form to vote, not the comments box or Facebook page.[/ideabox]

The 2016 Love Barrow Awards – Apprentice / Trainee Award

Love Barrow Admin

Jennifer Christie, Omar Echehamta and Jake Newton make up the three finalists in the Apprentice or Trainee of the year category in the 2016 Love Barrow Awards.

Jennifer Christie is a Business Support Apprentice working for Cumbria County Council supporting all aspects of Childrens Services. She has been with the organisation for just over a year and is a valued member
The nomination form told us that Jennifer is quick at learning with the ability to think outside the box and possesses excellent communication skills. Jennifer joined the department at a time of great change and transitions in ways of working, Jennifer has helped embrace the changes and helped others within the department.

Omar Echehamta  has been involved in North Walney Primary School since his children started school. The
teachers noticed how good he was at relating to children and asked him if he could help out in classes. Omar willingly volunteered in school and really enjoyed working with children.
His experience of volunteering in school led him to apply for an apprenticeship scheme through Lancaster & Morcambe college. Omar completed his level 2 childcare qualification in July this year and has now started his Level 3 qualification through Furness College. Omar is enthusiastic and committed to caring for children. He is a great male role model for the children in school and is well respected by the children and adults that he works with.

Jake Newton  has truly been a star throughout his time at Furness College. He was fortunate to receive an apprenticeship through BAE Systems in the Easter intake. Jake has always been willing to join in with College activities, during the Christmas fund raising, Jake lead a group who run a stall – his enthusiasm was infectious and soon the whole group were surrounded by customers.

Jake has always been willing to share his knowledge with others in class and is always willing to give opinions and to start discussions. Jake’s work in the workshop has always been of a very high standard, he has enjoyed the challenges of new tasks. “Nothing ever seems too much trouble for Jake a truly exceptional student. “

Three great finalists I’m sure you’ll agree and very difficult to choose an overall winner! We look forward to joining all three at the awards evening in March when all the Love Barrow Award finalists receive their accolades as finalists and winners.

 

The 2016 Love Barrow Awards – Environment Award

Love Barrow Admin

Time for some blog updates – I’ve been a little bit busy and have been caught out by the Love Barrow Awards main man John tweeting about this blog, so, quick, here we go…

The three finalists in the Environmental Award Category are:

Pat Denny, The Barrow Park-keepers and Morecambe Bay Partnership.

Pat Denny is well known in the local area for her love of wildlife and caring for animals, particularly birds, over many years.

Pat has transformed her home into a wildlife rehabilitation centre and haven where she nurses injured and sick animals back to health for release back into the wild. For birds that are unable to be released back, they spend their days in her aviaries.

She is over retirement age but continues to work to fund her good work with animals. She really is a dedicated and worthy Love Barrow Award nominee.

Barrow Park-keepers have been nominated for the work they undertake within the local park – it really is a wonder to see. The grass is always perfect, the flower beds are stunning, the whole place is a credit to the dedication of the team tasked with looking after it. As a regular at the weekly parkrun, I meet many people fro out of the area who come and visit our park to take part in the run – they always comment about what a stunning park we have here in Barrow and how it rivals any other in the country. Well done team!

Morecambe Bay Partnership is a small charity that makes BIG things happen. They are working hard to
bring benefits to the communities, heritage and environment around the Bay. To date, the Partnership has secured over £3.5M of external investment and are aiming to help secure £10M in the next 10 years to make
more great things happen. Recent projects include the Bay Cycle Way and bringing 2020Vision exhbition to the Bay.

They run a project called Love My Beach which encourages local communities and schools to get involved in environmental projects within their area, they also run the Dunes of Barrow Project, working closely with Natural England.

ALL THREE are great finalists, the winner will be announced at the awards night in March 2016, but in reality, they are all winners, well done all!