Sleaford Town Awards 2019 - Young Sleafordian category is strong

○ Charlotte Gibbs is a 13-year-old student at Kesteven and Sleaford High School in Year 8 who is a key member of the school’s Interact Team – a junior version of the Rotary Club.

They organise events in the community including a plan to visit Moore’s Court once a month to get to know residents.

She also helped organise the school’s senior citizens Christmas party at the school with over 50 guests.

Charlotte is a charity captain for her form and was instrumental in getting her form (and consequently other forms in Year 8) to take part in the ‘Post Pals’ scheme over Christmas where students sent letters to sick children who in hospital.

She said she is happy to talk to older people as she feels there is so much to learn from them: “I like to make a good impact on my community.”

○ Evan Robinson, 10, is in Year 6 at William Alvey School. He was at home with his mum on a Sunday afternoon three months ago when they were cooking a roast dinner. Evan was playing and his dad was out when his mum Heather got a piece of pork lodged in her throat and choked.

She said: “Evan heard me, he came running through and grabbed me from behind and started squeezing my stomach, luckily he dislodged it enough for me to breathe, Evan then went running down the street to call my husband back.

“It wasn’t until afterwards that I thought how fast his reactions were, he wasn’t scared, his immediate reaction was to help me and to just get on with it.

“I also asked him how he knew what to do, he told me that he’d seen it on YouTube. I told him how proud I was of him and I still am to this day, he’s my little hero.”

○ William Alvey pupil Lillyann Lees, seven, has been fundraising for her local Rainbows group which she has only been attending since September when it started up.

She has been running tombolas at pamper events in Great Hale and Leasingham as well as filling a Smarties tube with change challenge. She has donated some of her own items to the cause as well as collecting donations from stall holders and people connected with Rainbows.

Dad mark said: “She loves doing it as money raised allows her to do activities with Rainbows as well as purchasing arts and crafts items, and food items allowing them to try new foods.”

○ James Hutchings, aged 13, is a Year 8 student at Carre’s Grammar School. The school hosts a weekly cake sale for Motor Neurone Disease which has been going for almost a year. He is the one student that has baked every single week without fail to help towards raising much needed funds.

He said: “I make them myself every week. I double up the ingredients to make it taste nicer. I do Victoria sponge, coconut cookies, but don’t plan to be a baker - maybe a police officer.”

○ Leonie Blackbourn is a Year 6 pupil at William Alvey School, who regularly acts as a facilitator at local Voice events set up by mum Philippa Blackbourn (a speech and language therapist) and Saffron Mann (specialist teacher) at an East Midlands branch of this charity, so that young people with cerebral palsy and no speech, can gather socially and communicate using their augmentative communication systems to interact.

The events are held at Grantham Meres Leisure Centre. All Saffron and Philippa’s children help out at the group with the young people, usually partnering up, crafting, dancing, chatting or playing games.

Over the last 18 months the youngsters have become more convinced they want to work with young people.