September 7 was an incredibly proud night in The Fed’s history when several employees, one of our teams and others closely associated with our work scooped up a bunch of awards at the 2023 Jewish Representative Council’s Community Awards.
The event attracted a record crowd of 300 people, to the Hilton Suite in Prestwich, with representatives of organisations spanning the community and operating across a range of areas.
The Communal Employee of the Year Award went to our very own Adele Whitehead, above left, who is a senior social work practitioner in CAST – our community advice and support Team.
There were 16 nominations in this category alone – no fewer than five of which were for employees of The Fed. Aside from Adele, these were Nick Burgess, activity team manager, Chrisden Williams, team leader on Beach House, Lucy Edwards – trusts, foundations and bids fundraiser and Juliette Pearce, formerly our volunteer services manager, who now heads up the My Voice project.
Jakki Pinsley from our customer services team was one of 27 people nominated for Volunteer of the Year.
The Big Birthday Appeal Special Recognition Award went to Ben Sarak, the son of Natasha Harries from our fundraisng team, who despite the jibes and bullying let his hair grow for three years to raise sponsorship money for The Fed and donate his hair to The Little Princess Trust to provide a natural hair wig for a child undergoing cancer treatment.
The Rising Star Award went to our former Next-Gen project coordinator, Danielle Jeffries for her wonderful work in engaging younger people with The Fed. She accepted this remotely (see directly above), having recently moved to London to work for Jewish Care.
Finally, the Community Recognition Award went to our My Voice project (above centre) for its role in sharing the life stories of Holocaust Survivors and Refugees, while one of its storytellers and prolific public speaker, Ike Alterman received the Special Recognition Award.
We send out warmest congratulations to all these very worthy winners.