Maghull wins BBC Environmental Award, last night. https://www.facebook.com/bbcmerseyside
The Friends of Maghull & District (FOMD) with the communities amazing support had been selected from apparently hundreds of nominees to be one of four finalists, for an environmental award, as part of the BBC ‘Make a Difference’ awards, last night. The award was one of eight heartwarming Make a Difference categories (see picture).
We could not believe that we had been selected for the last four and such was the calibre of the finalists that we had zero expectation of winning. Consequently, we were totally unprepared and shocked to win. We want this award to be for the countless kind-hearted people in our community that have contributed at every level, to make a difference to our environment. Thank you to one and all you have been amazing and in the immortal words of Victor Meldrew which we have countlessly repeated – ‘We don’t believe it’.
On the night, the beauty of the Sefton Palm house venue was only equalled by the beautiful inspiring actions of the many people who attended as finalists, but also the many others that were nominated from across Merseyside who were not there. We are also grateful to BBC for not only organising the event but for capturing/highlighting so many inspiring stories on a daily basis, which makes a community a community. In addition, we would like to express our immense gratitude to everyone at the sadly closed Champion newspaper, who have consistently championed our communities across the borough, and wish them a fully deserved positive future. Finally, thank you to the final judge – Emily Garratt and nominator – Cllr John Sayers (ex-Maghull Mayor) for recognising the merits of our environmental community projects.
FOMD is a very small group which started in 2019, and have worked voluntarily and almost full-time, whilst everyone is already involved in other charities. Nevertheless, we have achieved some of the following projects, comprising of a myriad of sub-projects.
- Parkbourn Project. https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/parkbourn
- Stafford Moreton Way. Project https://www.spacehive.com/stafford-moreton
- Woodend Project. https://www.spacehive.com/woodend
- Planted 15,000 trees in two short planting seasons, and commended by the late Queen’s local representative.
- Attracted an unprecedented £45,000 green investment into Maghull’s 14 parks.
- Currently planning (1) our largest project which requires a £60,000 transformation, and (2) further planting of thousands of trees.
Jasmine Johnson sang her interpretation of ‘Simply the Best’ for all the finalists on the night!
With much gratitude,
FOMD