Barnsley Platinum Champions! As part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations, the Royal Voluntary Service launched the Platinum Champions Awards for volunteers. These awards aimed to recognise volunteers from all corners of the United Kingdom and from a range of causes.
BARNSLEY ACTIVITY
Nominations for these awards happened back in April and were put forward to a judging panel, made up of volunteering experts, celebrity supporters and academics. Nominees were judged on their impact on the lives of others, their dedication to volunteering, and on how much they inspire those around them. From all the nominations, 490 Platinum Champions were selected across the whole of the UK, and we are pleased to say that five of those awarded were from Barnsley! Julie Brown, Paul Hilton, Ann Wroe, Beth Deakin and Peter Robertshaw were all awarded a Platinum Champion Award! A huge congratulations and very well deserved for all of them! We managed to catch up with two of the award winners, Beth and Peter, to have a chat about the experience. We start with Beth. Tell us a bit about yourself. My name is Beth Deakin, and I am 32 years old. I am a primary and secondary SEN teacher and Social Emotional and Mental Health practitioner, which means in term time, I am a very busy person! I am from the Dearne, currently living in Goldthorpe with my partner of 14 years, Jack and our very naughty Beagle Chris. I am very proud of my heritage and love where I live! Tell us about Project 14. I set up Project 14 (which is a community group) in 2017 after losing my best friend Ashley to suicide. He was my best friend from primary school, and he was more like my brother. His loss was unexpected and hit us all incredibly hard.
JULY 2022
We raised a lot of money for amazing mental health charities in the early days which made me think about how we could set up a group that fundraises, get people together and promote positive mental health and well-being that benefits our local area directly - some of the charities we fund raised for didn’t even have a regional office, never mind anything in Barnsley.
