Luton's Best Awards

Organised by the Luton Forum and supported by the council the non-profit making event, on Thursday December 8th, was run at no cost to the town thanks to twenty five local sponsors who gave their financial support.

The evening was hosted by Buck’s Fizz singer Cheryl Baker and the guest speaker was former Olympic javelin medalist Steve Backley OBE.

A total of 16 awards were handed out to people from all walks of life, age groups and cultures.

Hazel Simmons, chairman of the Luton Forum, was delighted to have the opportunity to publicly say thank you to these exceptional people. She said: “Yet again we received more than 400 nominations for the 16 categories and the judging panel, made up of our sponsors, had a difficult time to shortlist let alone choose the winners.

“2011 has been a fantastic year for Luton with so many people pulling together to put forward our bid for City Status.  The quality of the nominees and winners demonstrates that Luton would be a worthy winner of this accolade.”

The 16 category winners were:

Child of Courage – Courtney Walsh
Luton in Harmony – Sarah Allen
Community Business Person – Ben Hodson
Lifetime Achievement – Ken Hone
Keeping Luton Safe – Luton Women’s Aid
Young Achiever – Sabrina Bakare
Best Fundraiser – Sanum Ghafoor
Adult Achiever – Simon Stothard
Community Company of the Year – NOAH Enterprise
Innovation/Innovator – Sustainable Opportunities Limited
Community Project of the Year – The Lewsey Community Mural Project
Service with a Smile – Jacky Simmonds
Leisure and Culture – team Beds& Luton – Get Back Into programme
Environmental Achievement – Bethune Close Environmental Project
Outstanding Teacher – Jamie Kelly
Lutonian of the Year – Linda Farrell

Follow this link for photographs of the event.