On Tuesday night, Phil and I attended the Stockport Rocks! Volunteer Awards. This fabulous event is organised by the brilliant Sector 3 organisation, who have been a great help to us. We were delighted to have been nominated in the Volunteer Team award and were looking forward to a fun night – the only downside was that Kate was away on holiday with her family, enjoying some well-earned rest in Portugal.
The event was held in 1883 Suite at Edgeley Park, home of Stockport County, League Two Champions for 2023/24. Steve Bellis, Chair of Stockport County, was the host for the night and did a great job. Phil, who lives close to the ground and knows Steve, introduced me at the start of the night! It felt like we were celebrities!
We were sat on a table with some fantastic people, including Steve Hall from Banter & Brews and Karen Ainley from Stockport County Community Trust. Steve won the Health & Wellbeing Award for his work setting up Banter & Brews to provide a peer support group for men of all ages. It sounds like an incredible organisation.
Phil and I saw from the programme that we’d been shortlisted from all the nominees for our category, which was the last one of the night. Steve Oliver, the founder of Music Magpie, was presenting our category, and we couldn’t believe it when he announced that there were two winners: the fabulous team from The Wellspring, and us! It was a really emotional moment (we had a little cry!).
After the awards, we spoke to Steve about us working with Music Magpie in some way in the future, and had a dance (of course) with Kai Ojo from Planisware, one of the other sponsors of the event. They were both so supportive. Both organisations are really committed to supporting our local community, which is wonderful.
The whole evening was really special. There are an estimated 57,000 volunteers in Stockport and it felt like a lovely way to do something to recognise that. Thank you to Sector 3 and the Stockport Volunteer Hub for everything they do to support organisations like ours.
Thank you most of all to everyone who nominated us for the award. We were very proud to accept it, but it’s our Dementia Disco family which makes it so special. Love to you all and keep dancing!
