Celebrating Sutton’s Heroes

It was a huge joy to take part in Sutton’s Community Awards this week, celebrating our fantastic community groups and volunteers.

It was a really uplifting evening, organised by Sutton Council, in partnership with Community Action Sutton, Volunteer Centre Sutton, Sutton Housing Partnership and was sponsored by Everyone Active.

This year a record-breaking 280 nominations for 11 categories were submitted and all of the shortlisted nominees are here. I’m sure you will agree these are really outstanding entries and how lucky we are to have such amazing people as part of our local community.

We were thrilled to have Tim Vine as our host and as always he had everyone laughing from the moment he stood on the stage! It was so kind of him to give up his time to once again show his support for Sutton.

One of Sutton’s up and coming stars Shanelle Rudrigo provided some stunning entertainment by singing and playing her guitar. Shanelle reminded me that we have some really talented singers and musicians here in Sutton and she is certainly one to watch in the future.

There were so many great winners on the night and it was inspiring to hear about all of the fantastic things that they do. However, I must say that the star of the show was local cub scout leader Ken Smith. 

Ken stole everyone’s hearts by the way he so humbly accepted the ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house when he came onto the stage to make his acceptance speech.

In a world which at times seems fragile and unsteady,, it’s important to remember that there are very many kind and generous people living here too - people like our community heroes. People like Ken. 

Councillor Ruth Dombey
Leader of the Council