NOMINATIONS SOUGHT FOR REHAB DONEGAL “PEOPLE OF THE YEAR 2007”
This year sees the 13th series of the Donegal REHAB “People of the Year Awards 2007” being launched, and the event, far from diminishing in popularity, just seems to go from strength to strength! Donegal County Council are again the primary sponsors, along with the invaluable Media sponsorship of the Donegal Democrat/Donegal People’s Press and Donegal on Sunday newspaper group. Great support is also given from the entire media in Donegal. This years awards will again honour people, many of whom will be unsung heroes in the community, who through their personal leadership, participation, courage or achievement, have made an outstanding contribution to the community within the county or amongst Donegal people living away from home. Ten awards will be made and the judges, at their discretion, may award an additional “Hall of Fame” Award.
At the official launch of this year’s Awards, Cllr. John Boyle, Mayor of Donegal said, ”Donegal County Council is delighted to be associated again this year with the REHAB Donegal People of the Year Awards. Each year the Awards recognise the value of people in the county and acknowledge the hard working community and voluntary sector. It is fitting therefore that the Council in this small way can be involved in thanking the volunteers who work tirelessly, at weekends and nights, to realise a better standard of living for communities in the county. The REHAB Awards offer those of us in the county who value the work of these people the chance to nominate men, women and young people in our own towns and villages who make our lives more bearable. These Awards give recognition of outstanding contributions of individuals to society. Please take the time to nominate someone!”
Welcoming the participation of Donegal County Council, REHAB’S North West Regional Organiser, Amanda Crawford, said “ “We are delighted that Donegal County Council has again agreed to be our primary sponsor for these Awards, and the Awards ceremony, which is a major fundraiser for REHAB in Donegal. It seems particularly fitting that our own County Council, which provides quality services to the people of Donegal, should honour those, who, through their contribution to the community, but for these Awards, might otherwise go unrecognised. Please take a little bit of time to nominate someone, whether it be an individual or group of individuals, so that they can be publicly acknowledged by their peers and their county, and if your nominee has been nominated in the past, and has, so far, not been chosen, please put their name forward again. There are only eleven awards each year, and our adjudicator’s have an extremely difficult job each year to choose the winners, because the quality of nominations is so high, so maybe this year will be the year for your nominee to win!
RTE NATIONAL AWARDS
Amanda continues “We were delighted with the social and fundraising success of last year’s event, which saw 650 people gathered in the Mount Errigal Hotel to honour the winners, and aside from the 1000 people who attend the National Awards, which are televised by RTE, in City West Hotel in Dublin, Donegal has the distinction of hosting the largest regional event in the country!” The size of the attendance and the quality of the winners continues to give prestige and integrity to the event and we urge people to make the effort to complete nominations for the dozens of hugely deserving workers within their local communities, so that they may receive the public acclaim they richly deserve. The Donegal award winners will go forward for inclusion as nominees in the National “People of the Year Awards” which are held each Autumn and are shown on RTE. Over 400,000 people watched last years Awards, making it one of the most popular programmes on RTE television.
The Awards continue to be given invaluable media support by the Donegal Democrat and Donegal People’s Press and Donegal on Sunday newspapers, and the organisers are confident that the number and quality of the nominations will continue to rise, to enable the judging panel to assemble a list of winners who will maintain the high standards established over the past ten years.
DONEGAL’S “OSCARS”
This year the awards, described variously as “the blue riband event of the year” and “Donegal’s Oscar’s” will be presented at a Gala Banquet on the 29th of March 2008, in The Mount Errigal Hotel, Letterkenny and The Master of Ceremonies for the presentation will again be the Chairman of the “Rehab Donegal People of the Year” organising Committee, Art Kavanagh.
Funds raised from the event will go towards the work of REHAB in Co.Donegal, which has a large RehabCare centre in Lifford, that supports clients from throughout Co. Donegal, and also National Learning Network training centres in Letterkenny and Killybegs, and where the work at these centres contribute to independence, equality and integration for people with disabilities, their carers and for those who are marginalized.
NOMINATION FORMS
Nomination forms are available through Donegal County Council Public Service Centres, and the county’s library system, and from local communities centres and in the training centres of RehabCare & National Learning Network.
Those eligible for nominations (any person or organisation may nominate a candidate) will either be a native of Donegal or will have resided in the county for at least a year and who have made what is considered to be an outstanding contribution at local, national or international level.
The organisers and adjudicators continue to emphasise that care be taken in the completion of the nominations. The addition of press cuttings and photographs add body and colour to the nominations, but details of the Nominees achievements are vital to paint a proper picture. Letters of support from associations etc can also be included. There have been 12 series of awards – with only 126 people being honoured so far out of a population of 120,000! There are hundreds of deserving nominees who cannot be honoured unless they are nominated! The closing date for nominations is Friday February 8th 2008, with judging during the following week. Award winners will be announced mid-February 2008.