Category: Darren’s Blog

A great sports volunteer nomination in the 2015 Love Barrow Awards – Sharon George.

Sharon works tirelessly most days of the week to support and develop Netball in the Furness area. She is the Umpire and Fixtures secretary of the South Lakeland Netball League along with actively umpiring each monday night.

She is one of the Key members of Lindal Netball club who not only play in the SLNL but are also in the CumbriaPremier league.

Sharon works hard for netball locally whilst also working full time.

The nomination form is full of praise for Sharon – “She is just unflappable. She never stops. Be it organsing and officiating the SLNL on a Monday evening,attending county meetings when needed.”

“Sharon just cracks on and gets things done”

“Shes a blummin legend”

A great sporting volunteer and another example of what makes the Barrow area a great place to live, work and play.

Another fanatstic Group or Project of the Year nomination – Walney Island Community First Responders – if they win that’ll be a challenge for the trophy engravers as it has to be one of the longest nomination names in the 2015 Love Barrow Awards!

This group was founded in 2010 by Chris Fagan and his wife Colleen Fagan.

“Over time, a small group of volunteers from Walney Island use an on call system to attend Catagory 1 calls for The ambulance service. The group are all volunteers who have trained to deal with cardiac arrests, choking, bleeding and many other life threatening conditions. They are called to all Category 1 calls on Walney who attend in attendance with the ambulance providing support and in some cases have attended prior to the ambulance getting there, initialising treatment early.”

The group provides First Response cover to Walney 24/7 365 days a year.

The group is self funding, basic equipment is provided by North West ambulance however, ongoing community fundraising continues to provide equipment needed. Fundraising also provided Walney Island with many public access defibrillators.

The group also provide free training to groups or individuals who want training using these vital life saving devices.

A great team doing great work on Walney Island – well done on your nomination!

BREAKING NEWS – congratulations on making it to the final three in this category, see you on the red carpet at the Forum in March!

The latest nomination in the Group or Project of the Year category for the 2015 Love Barrow Awards is…

ABBOTSVALE RESPITE CARE.

(L-R Karen Dodding, Jean Waiting and Alf Hadley)

Jean Waiting and Karen Dodding helped set up the Abbotsvale respite care scheme as part of the Abbostvale Communtiy Association activities along side Cheeky Monkeys childcare who offer the space for the child care.

The respite care the association provides depends greatly on fundraising and from donations from local companies.

The anonymous nomination form mentions that –

“they have understood that there are a lot of children and families who are affected in the local community if that being from poverty or disabilities within the families. Jean and Karen offer childcare to families for a minimum of 6weeks 1 to 2 sessions a week.

Referrals come from the nursery themselves or from the local health visitors, they have had a lot of referrals in the year this charity has been running and they have helped lots of families in the time they need it.”

The association offers respite to local children in the Newbarns and Risedale area.  The respite care scheme allows parents to have a place for the children to go for a few hours a week and be safe and secure to allow the parents to do things they wouldn’t usually be able to do. They have only been running respite care for a year and they have helped a lot of families in the local area.

Well done to the association on the nomiantion- another great scheme that highlights the great work being undertaken in Barrow.

Art Gene are a Barrow based group of inter/national visual artists who work collaboratively with communities to raise awareness of the social, natural and built environment.

Art Gene connect people with visual art in ways that are open and inclusive. They reach out beyond their studios and gallery in the Nan Tait centre on Abbey Road, to involve people of all ages, from all across Barrow in unusual visual art experiences.

From walks and talks to exhibitions in unusual spaces, to road shows going out into communities, Art Gene reaches people who hardly ever would visit a gallery.

“no other organisation in Cumbria that delivers Art Gene’s quality of work, thatis led by artists and co-created with communities.”

 Jakub Jezierski, a young writer for Culture on Shoestring magazine who visited Art Gene from Lancaster, said: “Working with people on projects is the essence of Art Gene…collaboration adds value to their work and to the lives of participants. By involving the community and creating a connection to them they create a lasting effect that won’t cease to exist when the project comes to an end.”

Art Gene was founded and is led by two practicing artists with an international reputation –

Maddi Nicholson

and Stuart Bastik.

“They are hard-working, sincere, open, sharing, and totally committed to Barrow and its people.”

Art Gene has been working with the Barrow community for the past 12 years, building up strong links with community groups, schools, day centres, clubs and societies. They have involved individuals and families from various Barrow neighbourhoods, including Ormsgill, Hindpool, Barrow Island and Central and North and South Walney as well as the wider Barrow Borough communities.

A great group committed to the local community – well done on your nomination!

Hi Everyone,

It’s Friday again?

Where do the weeks go? We’ll be rolling out the red carpet at the Forum before you know it for the 2015 Love Barrow Awards. Nominations are still coming in and you’ve got until the 9th November to get your submissions in, it’s really easy, just click that NOMINATIONS link at the top of this page for instructions – you can complete everything online form this website and it’s really easy.

We’ll start the day with news of our latest Carer of the Year nomination – Kath Woodend.

When you think of “Carer”, you immediately think of the frail, ill, disabled and other needy people that are cared for on a daily basis by volunteers throughout our community. This one’s a little bit different -Kath is an animal lover and her caring work is all dedicated to our four legged friends.

For over 20 years Kath has fostered and cared for many cats and kittens  – She at one point had every room in the house including the bathroom occupied by either pregnant cats or mum and kittens, she has hand reared kittens single handed with no help and still goes round with a smile on her face, everyone knows her as the “kitten lady”.

The nomination form is full of praise for Kath and her work –

“Kath is the most loving and gentle woman I have ever met, she gives her love and attention to all animals not just the cats and kittens she cares for, she will help anyone in need and does it with a smile on her face at all times despite her age of 74 and her health problems”

Congratulations Kath on your nomination.

The inbox is looking busy again – I’ve got NINE new nominations to tell you about, including our first nomination for Young Citizen of The Year in the 2015 Love Barrow Awards.

All of the new nominations will be featured on this blog over the coming days – but for now, here’s the names –

GROUP OR PROJECT OF THE YEAR NOMINATIONS

ABBOTSVALE RESPITE CARE

ART GENE

CAST THEATRE COMPANY

WALNEY ISLAND COMMUNITY FIRST RESPONDERS

CARER OF THE YEAR NOMINATIONS

SHARON LEE BARKER

KATH WOODEND

TEACHER OF THE YEAR NOMINATION

NEIL TIPPINS

YOUNG CITIZEN OF THE YEAR NOMINATION

OWEN ENTWISTLE

SPORTS VOLUNTERR NOMINATION

SHARON GEORGE

Keep an eye on this blog and our social media accounts over the next few days as we give more details about these great nominees. Remember – nominations are open until 9th November, the clock’s ticking, get your nominations entered by clicking the Nominations tab at the top of this page.

 

 

A lovely nomination to start the new week, with a lovely local lady, Andrea Parker Edwards nominated for the Courage Award in the 2015 Love Barrow Awards.

Andrea is a young mother of two who is suffering with cancer. Instead of feeling sorry for herself she has thrown herself into cancer charity fund raising. She, together with her “Warrior Princesses” have raised over 10,000 pounds for cancer charities.

The nomination states that Andrea is “a person of immense courage”.

Andrea has show immense strength, trying to live a normal life despite her treatments and is a glowing example to the people of Barrow that life can carry on despite illnesses and her fundraising efforts are amazing.

Andrea has completed the “Race for Life” at two venues for Cancer Research UK,  she and her warrior princesses held a “dryathlon” where they abstained from the demon drink for a month and has organised raffles and other fundraising events including a forthcoming “Old Skool House Music night” at the Nines club in November.

Andrea’s nomination is recognition for the efforts helping others while fighting a mammoth personal battle.

“to do the things she has done despite her cancer is beyond words sometimes”

BREAKING NEWS – congratulations on making it to the final three in this category, see you on the red carpet at the Forum in March!

Have you got that Friday feeling? It’s the end of the working week (for some, sorry to those of you who will be working), time to look forward to a well-earned weekend rest.

What have you got planned for the weekend? Tonight sees a glittering awards ceremony in neighbouring Ulverston so good luck to everyone who has been nominated there. I’ll be donning my running shoes and no doubt catching up with some of this year’s Love Barrow nominees at the Barrow parkrun – we’ve had a bumper crop of Sports Volunteer and Group nominations for runners this year.

What about other sports? Are you taking part in an activity this weekend where a volunteer goes out of their way to help others and deserves rewarding? Have a think, have a look around and see if you can spot someone worthy of a nomination, then come back and hit the nomination tab at the top of this page and get them entered.

Are you doing something with the kids – again, we’re looking for nominations for Young Citizen of the Year – I’m sure everyone comes across a child who goes out of their way to help others, it may even be your own child, there’s no restriciton on nominating them.

And what about those businesses who do their bit for the community of Barrow – a quick look around the town centre and the beautiful floral displays tells you why Continental Landscapes have been nominated in that category – there are plenty of local (and national) businesses supporting our community through sponsorship, volunteers etc – have a think and if you stumble upon a company who are helping others, get them nominated.

Have a good weekend everyone, whatever your plans and keep on the look out for potential nominees.

The blog will be busy all weekend, keep checking back or watch our social media accounts, We’ve still got nominees to tell you about.