Final call to nominate your Torbay Community Champions 2025

Here’s your final call to nominate your Torbay Community Champions for 2025.

Entries close at midnight on Sunday, January 4 and then it will be up to a panel of judges to come up with a shortlist of three for each of the nine categories, all of whom will be invited to a presentation ceremony at Bay Church in Sands Road, Paignton on Friday, January 23.

Competition in most categories is fierce, though there is always room for more,  so don’t let the New Year celebrations get in the way of you celebrating and thanking that special person who makes a difference in your life.

It will only take a couple of minutes to fill in the form that can be found on the Torbay Communities website and the rest will be down to the judges that also represent our sponsors this year – Wollens - Full Spectrum Law, South Devon College,  Cantina Kitchen and Bar, Torbay Council, Steve Darling MP, the Torbay Weekly, Steve Barriball and Torbay Communities.

Just a reminder of what we are looking for – we have named the Carer of the Year Award after last year’s winner Kevin Helmore, who sadly died in October. His citation noted that he was a full time unpaid carer who wanted to get the voice of the learning disabled community heard in Torbay as well as helping improve this for the learning disabled.

Last year’s Health and Wellbeing Champion Award went to Bryan Pitman, who set up Brixham Rugby Club’s Looseheadz mental health wellbeing group after a tragic incident when one of the players took his own life at the age of 34.

The coveted Volunteer of the Year Award went to Barbara Sutton in recognition of her volunteering work on the committee for Children’s Week as well as being Brown Owl of a brownie pack in Torquay.

It is never too early to start volunteering, as was demonstrated by the winner of the Young Volunteer of the Year Award, five-year-old Leighton-Rose Jarrett, whose passion was litter picking to improve her environment whilst also raising £1,150 for charity.

As a coastal area, where would we be without the Torbay Coastguard Rescue Team to keep us safe and come to our aid when it all goes wrong? They attend around 150 incidents a year and perhaps, not surprisingly, picked up the Volunteering Team of the Year Award.

Angie Manning from What’s Your Problem, a community interest company which supports victims of domestic abuse and triages them to helpful groups and services, was recognised by winning the Emergency Worker of the Year category.

Everybody needs a good neighbour but you would be especially lucky to be living near Jess Gane who as well as being a busy your mum of four, and a business owner still found time to get to know and help her neighbours as was rewarded for her devotion to improving her local community for all who live there, a deserving winner of the Good Neighbour Award.

Cricketfield Community Garden is at the heart of the Hele and regularly plays host to visits by 15 to 30  school children at a time who learn about caring for the great outdoors and that is why the judges made it the winner of the Climate and Environment Champion Award.

And last, but by no means least, Norman “Norrms” McNamara was the worthy winner of the Lifetime Award for his work with his Purple Angel programme that has ambassadors worldwide advocating to improve dementia care.

Norrms also picked up the only award not made by the judges, but by his peers in a room full of shortlisted volunteers and community workers, the Torbay Community Champion Award for 2024.

But all that was last year and who knows who will be lifting the trophies this year? There are thousands of deserving volunteers and workers in the Bay who toil tirelessly, often behind the scenes, to make life better for us all. They really are Community Champions who deserve our praise.

This is your chance to shine a light on those efforts, celebrate and give thanks where it is most definitely deserved – go to TorbayCommunities.com today and make your nomination. Time is running out, don’t let them miss out