In pictures: Slough CVS Voluntary Sector Awards 2018

The hard work and dedication of volunteers was celebrated at Slough Voluntary Sector Awards on Friday, hosted by  Slough Council for Voluntatry Services (SCVS).

The glamorous evening was attended by more than 200 guests who were wined and dined at the Windsor/Heathrow Marriott in Ditton Road.

The ceremony started with a champagne and chocolate fountain reception and ended with dancing into the early hours of the morning.

The evening was compered by Lisa Cunningham, Ramesh Kukar of SCVS and Andy Kumar of art consortium HOME Slough with guests of honour the Mayor of Slough Cllr Paul Sohal and MP for Slough Tan Dhesi. 

Mr Kukar called the event ‘a celebration of the amazing contribution that ordinary residents of Slough make to their families, their neighbours and communities at large’.

Cllr Sohal, who is originally from the same village in India as Mr Kukar, called volunteers ‘the glue which holds the community together’.

The Young Volunteer of the Year award went to 13-year-old Louise Ellis who has a number of volunteering roles, including helping disabled and disadvantaged children at The Beehive Foundation, helping Roma children at the Chalvey Youth Cafe, volunteering as a young carers rep for Slough Youth Parliament and fundraising for her area’s girl guide unit.

She is also a young carer for her autistic sister and advocates for young carers and marginalised youngsters at school assemblies.

The SCVS Partnership Award went to dance school Creative Academy, whose students put on a post-dinner show for the crowd.

Creative Academy offers a Foundation degree and BA degree in dance to its students and has risen Slough’s profile amongst the country’s dance community.

It has made the arts more accessible by providing free or low priced sessions for children and by partnering with various Slough based organisations and charities.

Business Support of the Year went to Landid and Brockton Capital for its work on The Porter Building, whose facilities have been made available to the town’s community and voluntary groups.

Volunteer of the year went to Alan Meredith, manager and coach of the Slough Town PALS pan-disability football team, which recently became a nationally recognised 11-a-side-team and plays in a competition once a month.

Home-Start Slough, a support service for disadvantaged and hard to reach families, and Meet and Mingle, a voluntary group which helps and supports women and has recently started a men’s group were both joint winners of the Group of the Year award, and were each awarded £1,000 by SCVS and the Rotary Club of Slough.