March

COMMUNITY CHAMPIONS AWARD

One of the key aims for the Community Champions Award was to emphasise the importance of civic duty by rewarding students for their contribution and to encourage them to stay active members of society beyond their secondary education.

The award ceremony itself was a hotly contested event in 2016 with a final shortlist of four schools; The Manchester Islamic High School for Girls, The Radclyffe School, Stockport Academy and The Kingsway School competing with each other by presenting to a carefully selected panel of independent judges; Robb Potts - Deputy Chief Constable of Greater Manchester Police, Alanna Vine - a long serving respected local councillor from Cheadle, and Muhammed Bangi – Director of fundraising from the sponsoring charity Human Appeal International as well as a packed hall full of community workers and volunteers from a broad range of unique specialisms for the chance to be the Myriad Foundation’s Community Champion for 2016.

The presentations delivered by all four of the finalist schools were extremely impressive. Achievements ranged from raising vast amounts of money for local and international charitable causes, running IT classes for the elderly, visiting residents in care homes, interfaith activities and sponsoring the entire running of a school in East Africa. The judges really did have a tough decision to make. Whilst the judges deliberated, guests mingled and the young students from the schools took this as an opportunity to get to know one and other.

The judges all spoke about how impressed they were with all of the students, their presentations and how difficult it was to choose an eventual winner. They were truly awed by how much of a difference these young students were making to the lives of their local and international communities. It was nothing short of remarkable.