Todmorden Town Council today announced the winners of its annual Service to Todmorden Awards.
The Town Clerk, Naomi Crewe said “We received a number of excellent nominations for the awards this year but we are delighted to announce that David Payne has won the Individual Service to Todmorden Award and Disability Support Calderdale are the winners of the Organisations Service to Todmorden Award. Unfortunately, no nominations were received in the Young Persons category but we hope that will change next year”.
David Payne was nominated by present and past members of the Calder Valley Explorer Scout Unit for his outstanding contribution to Scouting in Todmorden for over 40 years.
Citations for David included “In his time in Scouting in Todmorden, Group Scout Leader David has maintained a group which has grown to be one of the largest in the district. This has taken a great deal of time which he has given freely and enthusiastically, whilst encouraging others to become leaders and do the same. Currently the group has several leaders who have grown up as cubs and scouts and remained whilst completing college before university, or who return from university to help with events and to run camps.”
“David has devoted thousands of hours, and many of his holidays organising meetings, events, expeditions and camps.”
“He has arranged discreet support for families with low incomes, maintaining free and subsidised places, uniforms and camp costs”.
“During the Covid pandemic, when concern was been expressed about young people’s mental health, due to a lack of social contact, he organised activities at home during isolation, suggested family activities and walks and coordinated leaders setting tasks for the various Beaver, Cub and Scout Troops”.
Disability Support Calderdale (DSC) is a local group run by and for people with a disability and long-term medical condition who live in Calderdale. They provide information and support to help empower and enable disabled people.
Their support services include help completing complex benefit forms, drop-in advice sessions, art groups and the provision of disability awareness training.
Nomination citations for Disability Support Calderdale touched on the extensive work this organisation has carried out for residents of Todmorden.
“The majority of work that DSC does comes from the Todmorden area”.
“DSC runs an art project at Todmorden College which is going really well and having an impact on people’s mental health and wellbeing which is fantastic”.
“The focus of work that DSC does is benefit forms such as PIP, Universal Credit, Pension Credit, Attendance Allowance, Carers Allowance. In the past 4 consecutive years, DSC has recouped over £1.2 million pounds for the people who have used this service and just over half of the total amount has gone to people in Todmorden. They are constantly busy with forms, phone calls and drop-in sessions but it is so worth it when people say, “you have literally saved my life” or “I could never have done this without you” or “you have taken all my stress and anxiety away”.
The winners will be presented with their awards by the Town Mayor at the Town Council’s Annual Meeting on the evening of Wednesday 17th May 2023.