Congratulations & Thank You to our three Community Champions 2024

Heartfelt congratulations to our three Community Champions 2024. These were Claire Stone, Group Scout Leader for 1^st Lindfield Scout Group, Sally Tapp, volunteer with Haywards Heath Foodbank and Kate Huxley, volunteer with the Bentswood Hub.

Claire runs one of the largest Scout Groups in the area, with 6 sessions a week involving 120 children, organising scout events, camps, and hikes, as well as taking part in fundraising events, including Lindfield’s Village Run and Village Day. She also covers for other leaders and attends meetings with other local groups. What’s more, she helps at the local Repair Café and is involved in a group aiming to restore Eastern Road Nature Reserve.

Sally is a volunteer at Haywards Heath Foodbank, helping to ensure that nobody in our local community goes hungry. Sally helps to sort through the donated food and prepares boxes to be given to those in need.

Kate is involved with Bentswood Hub’s community larder initiative, whereby each day 250kg of food and produce that would otherwise go to waste, is collected and distributed to support local people. She coordinates all the community larder volunteers and collections, which is a particularly difficult role as it takes 37 volunteers, and 9 supermarkets totalling 48 collections a week to make the community larder work. Kate takes full ownership of this role even making sure it is covered should she be away.

We were touched by all the worthy nominations and the endless time, energy and support that people volunteer to make our community a better place to live. Our winners were drawn from a hat, and all receive a £50 voucher for a local hospitality venue.

Thank you all for helping to make our community a better place to live.