Unsung heroes honoured

Unsung heroes who freely give their time to make local communities a better place received rightful recognition during a special ceremony.  

Winners and runners-up in the 2025 Blaby District Council Community Awards were honoured at the annual prize-giving.  

The event, held in the Council Chamber, was attended by more than 100 representatives from the local voluntary sector community. This included nominees from the three traditional categories: Volunteer of the Year, Young Volunteer of the Year and Community Group of the Year, plus this year’s new category, Sport and Physical Activity Volunteer of the Year. 

As always, the judging panel found it extraordinarily difficult to choose between the nominees, as all were deserving of praise. 

However, after much deliberation the Volunteer of the Year Award was given to Laura Thirlby with Jack Barber as runner-up. 

Young Volunteer of the Year, which was supported by Central Co-op, was split between two inspiring young women, Grace Egbetokun and Promise Jones, with runner-up Conor Freeman.    

In the new category, Sport and Physical Activity Volunteer of the Year, sponsored by Everyone Active, Kate Measures was the winner with Katie Griffin as runner-up. 

The winners and runners-up in the Community Group of the Year category are always chosen by public vote. This year there were more than 3,000 public votes. 

The top prize of £1,000 went to Gather Create Grow’s Cosby Crafters Group, runners-up were Vipers RFC Inclusive Team, while a Special Recognition award went to The Winstanley School for their work to champion volunteering among pupils. 

Councillor Ben Taylor, Leader of Blaby District Council and compere for the evening, said: "This is my first year as compere of our Community Awards evening and what an absolute honour it has been. To be in the company of so many amazing, selfless people is truly humbling. Every nominee does such a wonderful job enriching the lives of so many others – they are all champions in their own way and as always choosing the final winners and runners-up has been a monumental task. Well done everyone."  

Thanks also go to our sponsors who help make the awards a reality - Everyone Active, Central Co-op and the Love Blaby Lottery. 

For more information on the winners and runners-up visit: Community Awards 2025

Councillor Ben Taylor
Leader of the Council