Best of South Tyneside Awards: Forest schools and recycled parties - the green project making us more sustainable

It’s all reality thanks to a project in Jarrow which has been nominated for a Best of South Tyneside Award.

Williby Roc’s has been praised for the way it works with everyone from children to pensioners.

News of the nomination was greeted with delight by the group’s education director Danielle Pollard who said: “We are absolutely over the moon to be nominated for these awards, its really exciting.”

It is only three years since the Community Interest Company was formed. Its aim was to inspire creativity by using recycled, prel-oved and natural materials.

Danielle said: “We started off delivering environmentally friendly birthday parties and quickly diversified to deliver workshops, events and classes for the community with a focus on waste reduction and using natural materials.”

Williby Roc’s is now involved in numerous schemes including developing green spaces, holding nature workshops, forest and coastal school sessions, and forest school playgroups.

It also holds after school clubs, intergenerational workshops, additional needs sessions, community art projects, Women in Nature groups and has voluntarily developed the Eco Brick project throughout schools and community groups.

The project is also helping to develop an outdoor space at Roseway Care Home.

It has helped set up a ‘community fix it café’ to help reduce the amount of waste going to landfill.

And it is working with two groups of younger people in South Tyneside to raise awareness of native wildflower planting.

Williby Roc’s joins a great list of causes which have been nominated for honours. But we want more.

We want to know about the unsung heroes, community champions, inspirational children and fantastic sports people for this year’s awards which will be taking nominations until Friday, August 30.

That’s loads of time to put forward your favourites – and once we pass that deadline, the judges will meet to draw up a shortlist in each amazing category on September 3.

Then it is on to the grand finale which will be held on Thursday, September 19 at the Roker Hotel.

The Best of South Tyneside awards, this year, have the support of the South Tyneside and Sunderland NHS Foundation Trust, Tyne Coast College, Barbour, JML, Harlow Print, UTS, and Warmseal.

Watch out for more details on them in the days and weeks to come.

In the meantime, let’s start that process of honouring all those unsung stars.

There are plenty of categories to choose from.

Get your nomination in as soon as you can as that way, you know you’ve put an unsung hero in the running for honours.

To nominate, please send us the full name, phone number and email address, of the person you wish to nominate and the category you want to nominate them for, along with a brief description of why they are worthy of an award.

And if you are submitting an entry in the Young Performer category, send us a video of them performing.

Send your entries by email to: [email protected] or to https://www.bestofsouthtyneside.co.uk.

The categories

Green Champion of the Year.

Child of Achievement.

Fundraiser of the Year.

Entrepreneur of the Year.

Local Hero Award.

Sporting Excellence/Young Sportsperson of the Year.

Sports Team of the Year.

Community Champion.

Student of the Year.

Community Group.

Small Business of the Year.

Large Business of the Year.

Child of Courage

Young Performer of the Year.

Lifetime Contribution.

Special Recognition.