Our Awards
2022

Our Founder opened our Awards Night with a few words (quite a few actually) but we thought that what he said should be known by everyone, not just those lucky enough to be there!

Welcome to the 2022 Best of WF3 Awards and thank you ever so much for showing your support.

​

For those that know me, or have seen me running around for the last hour or few weeks… we got there in the end! I know I have drove lots of people round the bend these last few weeks but it’s going to be worth it and we’re going to have a great night. 

For those that don’t know me, my names Dan and I am the Founder of WF3 Kindness, the community charity for Tingley, Ardsley and Thorpe and we’re the people that are proud to bring The Best of WF3 Awards!

Just a little bit about who we are and where The Best of WF3 Awards came from, WF3 Kindness was 'born' back in March 2020. It was the 8th of March, and the reason I know for sure is that it was the anniversary of my brother’s death, who passed away in 2018. I’d had a somewhat reflective day and Sarah and I were watching the news and saw how Covid hitting parts of Italy was affecting people. I  was worried that a lot of people everywhere, but right here on our doorstep, would really struggle with what was, in my eyes, inevitable. We both said 'we should do something' to help.

I thought about the elderly, people who may not have relatives close by – they wouldn’t be able to go shopping or would be too scared to go shopping. Then there were the people who lost their jobs or became unable to work, literally overnight – how would they eat? feed their kids? What would they do?

I thought about peoples mental health and how that would be affected, our kids, what would the future hold.

My mind was all over but I just knew that groups like this would be needed, so… WF3 Kindness came about. The first step was to form a team of willing volunteers and specialists in different areas to enable us to support as many people as possible, we were inundated with offers of help.

​

In the May (2020) I was invited to join Morley and District Lions Club and they agreed for me to bring WF3 Kindness with me and under their umbrella, this provided us with Registered Charity status which opened up many more doors and allowed us to grow. I'm proud to be a Trustee and Secretary of the charity and there is so much we can continue to do across Tingley, Ardsley and Thorpe. 

Since then,

We have delivered more than 700 Kindness Packages;

Nearly 300 food parcels;

We’ve provided mental health support through a link up with a local registered and qualified counsellor,;

We’ve helped people with benefit enquiries, filling out forms;

We’ve provided advice and information to people who have found themselves in serious financial difficulty; 

We've provided advice and support for people looking for work - helping with CV workshops and filling out Application forms (including kitting one person  out with an outfit for an interview);

We've given out more than a £1200 in grants and community support, and last but not least;

We’ve funded 3 community defibrillators

all in just 2 years, 24 months, and at a time where uncertainty and anxiety have been at the highest. I think that's pretty amazing really and am really proud of what the team have achieved.

The stats are only possible because of donations from people and local businesses and I’m delighted that some of our key Partners are here tonight, Kev and Robrook Design and Print who printed us hundreds of leaflets which was the very first step in our journey to find volunteers and get our name out across the area.

Stephen and Charlotte Mitchell from Ardsley Windows, Gavin and Nikki Esberger from GME and NE Cleaning have been immense right from the very first days and weeks and we genuinely couldn’t have done it without you all.

And we’ve been recognised too… We were crowned Community Heroes by Yorkshire Water in a regional search for people and groups that were making a difference to their local community and probably the biggest award came in December 2019 when I won a Yorkshire Thank You Award. I was chuffed, speechless (which doesn’t happen often) and really proud but I was also embarrassed... and I felt a bit of  a fraudster. You see, I may have been the face of things (sure they could have found a better one somewhere) but it certainly wasn’t just me doing the graft – I just pulled people together, I can assure you that I have not been shopping for over 500 people… ever!

I had a chat with the team about how I could share this success and recognise the people who do amazing things all the time right here in Tingley, Ardsley and Thorpe.... That is when these Awards were born.

Last year we held our first Awards but because of lockdown we were unable to have a face to face event so our winners, some of which are here tonight, were announced on our Facebook page by my friend of many years and Patron of WF3 Kindness, Mr Billy Pearce!

It’s great to have an in-person awards night this time round and see people face to face and who knows… maybe we’ll be back next year?

Just a word on the Awards this year… we received a record smashing 206 nominations this year which is just magnificent, it shows that Tingley, Ardsley and Thorpe isn’t such a bad place to live despite what we may think and say sometimes and looking at the nominations this area is full of inspirational people, clubs and groups, local businesses and schools and that is why we received so many nominations!

This Awards ceremony wouldn’t have been possible without the support of so many:

Dr Martina Hodgson who is the owner and Principal at The Dental Studio in East Ardsley for once again coming on board to be our Headline Sponsor, a bit different this time round as we are actually able to have it in person, all in the same room. Thank you Martina and the team for your support;

 My wife, Sarah, my secretary, chauffeur, councillor – she’s been amazing from day one and put so much into these awards;

Our Leadership Team and Volunteers, who have been immense, not just tonight but in the build-up, the support has been phenomenal so a huge thank you and applause must go to our purple sash wearing crew of Ashley, Cheryl, Jackie, Jennie, Jessica, Julie, Linda, Reanna and Susan – you’ve all been amazing, thank you!

Our Event Partners: Andy Smith (DJ and PA Equipment) and Mike Robinson (Photographer), these two guys have given their time and equipment for free tonight, so a huge thank you to these very generous individuals, thanks Andy and Mike.