Dan's Welcome

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Firstly, I’d like to welcome our special guests; The Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Leeds, The Mayor of Morley and Cllr Wyn Kidger along with Ardsley Windows, Icebreaker Bands and our other sponsors.

 

We set up WF3 Kindness in March 2020, this week is our third anniversary and today, the 16th March is actually the day that three years ago we launched our Tingley, Ardsley and Thorpe Viral Kindness group on Facebook.

 

WF3 Kindness works across the Tingley, Ardsley, Thorpe and surrounding area and everything we do is centred around three main pillars:

We connect WF3 - We bring individuals, businesses and groups together;

We support WF3 – We help those that live or work in our community;

We change WF3 – We make lasting impact to the community and improve the area for everyone.

 

The world today is very different to what it was in March three years ago, and whilst some of those challenges and difficult times are now behind us, we face other things and world events that provide people right here in our community with challenges. The cost-of-living crisis is affecting everybody, the rise in energy bills and food shopping alone means that we all have to look at what we are doing. 

 

I’m a big Leeds Rhinos fan and one of my all-time heroes is Kevin Sinfield, Sir Kevin Sinfield… and Sir Kev has said a few times how he tries not to worry about the things he can’t control and instead focuses his energy and enthusiasm into what he can. I guess that’s what WF3 Kindness do – we try not to stress about the things we can’t help with but pull individuals, groups and organisations together and collectively we make a difference. 

 

We’ve delivered more than 850 Kindness Packages and nearly 400 food parcels, we’ve purchased three defibrillators and hope to launch our next defib appeal in the coming weeks. We’ve had some great community events such as the Easter Trails, the summer fun day and the Christmas fayre which combined has seen us bring more than twelve hundred people together.

 

These Awards are one of the programs that we put together, this year we’re delighted to have been able to welcome you all to the amazing Village Hotel. Thank you to Sarah, Tre and Chris from The Village for all their support in the preparations and for their hard work tonight. It feels like the awards have ‘come home’.

 

This year’s Awards are our biggest yet, We’ve had more than 200 nominations and we sold out all our tickets to finalists before they went on general sale. Whilst each nominee is different, they all have one thing in common:

Not one of them do what they do for awards or for recognition, they do it because they want to help and make a difference – everyone tonight is a winner!

 

I want to thank our Judges, who we always say will remain anonymous, they had a tough job and there will be some here tonight that miss out but every single person sat here tonight is with a finalist – you all have something to be immensely proud of. You all make WF3 a better place – don’t forget that.

 

Thank you and welcome to Ardsley Windows and Icebreaker Bands who are our main sponsors for this years awards and along with GME Painting Contractors and K2 Mechanical and Electrical Services who have made this event possible – thank you.

 

There are also lots of other sponsors who have contributed to this evening, a few special mentions to Andy Smith, our DJ and PA man and Braeside Bakes who have supported the event again by giving each guest a special WF3 Kindness Biscuit!

 

Phil Fryer is performing this year, Phil is the best Frank Sinatra tribute singer in the world, he's just got back from a tour in Dubai but continues to support his local community - thank you Phil.

 

I'd also like to welcome our Host for the evening and Patron of WF3 Kindness, Billy Pearce who I'm proud to call my friend.

 

Thank you to all our guests for supporting us and coming along, it wouldn’t have been the same without you… it would have been less nerve wracking right now and I’d have had a less stressful week but it wouldn’t have been the same.

 

Finally, I want to thank my team. Team WF3. This group of volunteers are amazing – they get involved with everything, they all pull together to make sure we can do the things we do and help the people we have helped. This group are all parents, most work full time, some of them have more than one job but they still find time to do a little and what we’ve found is that if we all do a little then together we can achieve a lot.