This year's Suffolk Community Awards have seen a record number of entries with Youth Club of the Year currently the most hotly contested category.
Judges are now beginning the challenging task of selecting the winners across a total of 16 categories.
The awards have received their highest entry number ever this year – 162 nominations.
A partnership between Community Action Suffolk, Suffolk County Council and Suffolk Association of Local Councils, the awards recognise and celebrate those who have improved the quality of life for a community in Suffolk.
Categories range from Most Active Town to Outstanding Contribution to Volunteering, and The Anne Dunford OBE Award for Youth Participation.
Entries closed on July 16 and a ceremony for winners will be held at the Museum of Food in Stowmarket, on Monday September 25.
Hannah Reid, Deputy CEO of Community Action Suffolk, says the quality of nominations seen so far has been particularly impressive, and categories for ‘youth participation’ have attracted strong interest.
“We are delighted to have seen such a great response this year.
“Across all of the categories, we’ve not only seen a good number of entries, but a very diverse mix of the kind of projects, communities and individuals.
“Areas like our award for Youth Club of the Year and Youth Participation, are especially hotly contested, so we’re really looking forward to the conclusions of the judging process and to being able to announce our winners in September.”
Each sponsor organisation has a judging panel assigned to trawl through the entries for their particular award category.
The award ceremony will be hosted by former BBC Radio Suffolk presenter, and newly announced CEO of Cancer Campaign in Suffolk, Mark Murphy MBE.
He said: “These are such important awards in recognising the great work and selflessness of communities and individuals across our county.
“It’s a wonderful initiative to be part of and I’m really looking forward to the celebration event.”
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