MOLD Community Awards celebrate outstanding contributions at this year's annual award ceremony.
Mold Town Council was delighted to hold their second Mold Community Awards evening on May, 1 at Mold Rugby Club.
The awards acknowledge the outstanding contribution and commitment of groups or individuals living or working within Mold Town or supporting Mold residents.
The evening was attended by over 90 people who eagerly awaited the results as the winners were announced in each of the five categories and the Mayor’s Choice Award. In addition to the annual award categories, this year saw the presentation of an Outstanding Achievement Award.
The evening was hosted by the Mayor Cllr Teresa Carberry, Deputy Mayor Cllr Sarah Taylor and Cllr Pete Dando.
Mayor of Mold Councillor Teresa Carberry said: “This year Mold Town Council received over 130 nominations with 50 groups, businesses and individuals nominated.
"We often hear people say how difficult it is to pick the winners – but believe it is getting harder each year!”
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Cllr Carberry added: “The Community Awards evening is a firm favourite in the Town Council’s event calendar, it such an inspirational evening hearing how all our nominees have made a positive impact on our community, whether it’s providing excellent customer service, encouraging others to participate in a sport or activity or achieved outstanding performance, everyone nominated has enriched the lives of our community by their actions and this will have a long-lasting impact on our community.
"As my Mayoral term comes to an end, I can honestly say this evening has proved to be the highlight of my Mayoral year. I feel both proud and humbled to live and work in a town as caring and community minded as Mold.”
The winners were as follows:-
Volunteering award under the age of 25 - Mold Alun School Mental Health and Wellbeing Champions. They were nominated not only for their commitment, resilience and their efforts to help other students, teachers and parents at the Alun School but also for the help they provide the wider community.
Volunteering award aged 25 - Gwen and David Brown. Each year during the Remembrance period, through rain and shine, David and Gwen spend hundreds of hours distributing poppy boxes around the area, organising the local cadets to go out poppy selling and then collecting and counting all the money, before it is sent off to the British Legion.
The Browns have demonstrated true community spirit throughout their many years of volunteering and over the 50 years Gwen & Dave have dedication to the Royal British Legion, they have collected over £350,000!
Community Project of the Year Award - Mold and Buckley Round Table's Christmas Day Initiative. After the success of their first Christmas Day Initiative in 2022, Mold & Buckley Round Table volunteers wanted to go even bigger and help more people on Christmas Day 2023, this time they had over 70 people attend to enjoy a delicious 3 course meal on Christmas Day, served totally free of charge.
The Round Table Christmas Day ensured those who would otherwise have gone without, or those who would have spent Christmas alone, got to enjoy a home cooked Christmas dinner, surrounded by new friends. Prior to the day, the volunteers worked tirelessly to collect donations from all across the community, and really showed the best Mold has to offer.
This extraordinary project demonstrated compassion, community spirit, and dedication to serving the most vulnerable members of our society. This initiative exemplifies the spirit of the award, as it brought together community members to create a positive impact on the lives of those in need.
Business of the Year - The Gathering. Owner Rick Lee first opened the doors of The Gathering on Earl Road at the height of the Covid lock-down, a brave decision for any new business owner but the gamble soon paid off.
Throughout lock down Rick served customers with home cooked breakfast and lunch takeaways from the door of the café, ensuring people had a regular ‘take out’ treat to brighten up a difficult time. Due to Rick’s wizardry in the kitchen, The Gatherings reputation soon grew and once the lock down lifted people were keen to visit the café, and soon he was having to turn people away as the small café was full!
The Gathering also provide sponsorship and support to numerous local events and charities, including sponsorship of the Food festival, Mold NovemberFest, Mold Carnival, Mold Tennis Club and many others, as well donating prizes to fundraising and charity events within the local area and is now and holding a monthly quiz in aid of charity, as well as providing his venue for fundraising events.
Sporting Achievement Award - Mold Amateur Boxing Club. Ever since he started boxing as a child, Michael Phillips held the ambition to open up his very own club and in 2023, that’s exactly what Michael did, with Mold Amateur Boxing Club opening its doors for the first time, in July 2023.
Owner and Lead Coach Michael is the driving force behind the club and he has transformed the former ATS garage on Wrexham Road into a buzzing hive of activity. Providing a place for children and adults to engage in boxing, to empower them, and more importantly he has offered a safe place for youths, who may otherwise spend their evenings wandering around the streets.
Mayor’s Choice award - Trefor Jones. Trefor has been involved with the Foodbank and the campaign to keep our Community Hospital open and is an active committee member for the Friends of Bailey Hill, the Daniel Owen Community Centre, the Daniel Owen Festival and Bethesda Chapel as well as volunteering at many more events.
He helps in so many ways liaising with and between groups, often on behalf of other groups; keeping a tight rein on the finances of at least 3 groups and accepting the responsibility and commitment of time to be a Trustee to a number of local community groups. Trefor has such a big heart, putting his love for our community, quite literally into action.
This year due to the truly amazing achievements by one of the nominees, the Awards Community introduced an Outstanding Achievement Award as no other category seemed fitting enough, awarded to multi World Record Holder Sean Conway
Sean Conway is a world record breaking ultra endurance athlete, who over the last decade he has taken on numerous athletic endurance challenge.
Sean’s latest world record was in July 2023, when he completed his 105 ironman challenge. Over 105 consecutive days, each day, Sean swam 2.4 miles, cycled 112 miles and ran a marathon of 26.2 miles for 105 days solid.
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Sean not only had his local communities support, he had support from all over the world, and over the duration of 105 challenge, Sean has raised £102,000 for non profit organisations.
Deputy Mayor of Mold Councillor Sarah Taylor said: “It has been an absolute honour to host the awards alongside my fellow Councillors Teresa Carberry and Pete Dando and to be part of the Awards Panel who have the extremely difficult task of picking the winners as all the nominees would have been worthy winners.
"Mold is a great place to live because of people like this, giving up their own time and effort to help others and to help the town and community that we live in. It was a lovely evening celebrating everyone’s achievements. Well done to all involved.”
All winners received a special awards glass trophy and certificate.
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