Community heroes celebrated at White Rose

On By Press Release

White Rose Shopping Centre honoured heroes from South Leeds and beyond at its Community Awards yesterday (19 December 2022), the tenth annual celebration of its kind.

The awards celebrate those working hard to benefit their local community, and this year’s worthy winners include:

  • The team at Child Friendly Leeds, which works towards its goal of making Leeds the best city for children and young people to grow up in. Child Friendly Leeds recently celebrated its 10th birthday with a celebration at White Rose, attended by none other than King Charles III during his visit to Leeds
  • The Re-Think Food Academy at White Rose, which is committed to revolutionising food education. The academy helps build independence, resilience, and food security for children across Leeds through its physical learning space, information, and events, while also overseeing distribution of surplus foods to local households in need
  • Baroness Judith Blake CBE, who has been a driving force behind many improvements to our city. Despite her busy role as leader of Leeds City Council from 2015 – 2021, Judith has always shown a keen interest in White Rose’s initiatives to improve the South Leeds community, such as the installation of its solar panels and the hives of bees on its roof
  • The team at White Rose’s NHS covid vaccination pop-up clinic, working quickly and efficiently to ensure a safe, local clinic for the community
  • Dan and the team at Greggs on White Rose’s North Mall, who have been working with Gaitskell Primary School to donate bread to their breakfast club, as well as donating all the store’s leftover food on an evening to The Re-Think Food Academy
  • White Rose Primark store manager Adam Smith, who champions his store team to support each other, promoting inclusivity and diversity, and has led initiatives including free breakfasts for the team and becoming a Mental Health First Aider
  • Tom Kent of local superhero group The Cosmaniacs, a ‘group of misfit cosplayers’ who not only put smiles on faces through their appearances, but also fundraise for a variety of causes

Each winner receives a handcrafted glass trophy, created by students at Cockburn School and created by its Glass Room. The theme of the 2022 trophies is Renewable Energy, which asked students to think about different forms of energy and how they affect the world.

The handcrafted glass trophies were created by students at Cockburn School

Steven Foster, Centre Director at White Rose Shopping Centre, said:

“Our Community Awards are always a calendar highlight here at White Rose. It’s important to recognise the great work going on to benefit our community both within the centre and across Leeds as a whole.

“We’d like to applaud this year’s winners, and look forward to seeing the amazing work they continue to do in 2023 and beyond.”

 

This post is based on a press release issued on behalf of White Rose Shopping Centre

Photo: Baroness Judith Blake receives her award from Steven Foster

 

Whilst you’re here, can we ask a favour?

South Leeds Life is published by a not-for-profit social enterprise. We keep our costs as low as possible but we’ve been hit by increases in the print costs for our monthly newspaper – up 50% so far this year.

Could you help support local community news by making a one off donation, or even better taking out a supporters subscription?

Donate here, or sign up for a subscription at bit.ly/SLLsubscribe


Thank you for your support