Amongst much celebration with friends and family and PCP staff and volunteers, on Thursday, 20 December Helen Smith was named Options member of the year at the Day Care Service for Adults with learning and physical disabilities annual awards night, held at Redworth Hall Hotel. The event is a great opportunity to reflect on another successful year for the service and the individual member’s achievements in 2018.
Options based in the Pioneering Care Centre in Newton Aycliffe, operates 5 days a week and promotes independence, choice and social inclusion for every member. The group enjoy fantastic days out and weekends away as well as a range of activities including healthy cooking, crafts, learning activities, fitness sessions, music sessions, puzzles and mind games.
All award winners are nominated by the Options members for each category. The member then vote on who to give the award to, so to win Member of The Year is a great achievement. Helen’s peers decided she deserved the award as she is supportive of her colleagues. If Helen notices someone is feeling sad she is the first one there to try and cheer them up, offering to make a cup of tea, or listen to their worries. These are the qualities that have marked her out amongst her peers and lead to her receiving this recognition. Being Member of the Year is more than just an award it’s an ambassador role for the Day Service. Helen will be attending and representing Options at events, the People’s Parliament, and around PCP. Helen will welcome visitors to the service and support new members to settle. She’s an amazing person and we anticipate that Helen will do a fabulous job over the next year! Helen Smith said “I am so thrilled to have won this award and happy to represent Options”.
Cath Casey from Sainsbury’s Cobblers Hall, who are supporting the service, said “It was an absolutely great night, I loved seeing everyone get their awards. It’s great that Sainsbury’s are supporting Options as our local charity because they are just around the corner and we can see how our donations work, such as food for the Halloween Disco. But this awards night was just brilliant to be a part of”
On the night MP Phil Wilson and Carol Gaskarth, PCP’s Chief Executive, made the award presentations and after the awards the evening was finished off with a singer, meal and disco and was thoroughly enjoyed by all.
This year’s other winners were:
Samantha Grimes
Gained most confidence
Howard Affleck
Most cheerful member
Anthony Bowman
Most adventurous member
Danielle Barlow
Most sporty member
Keith Dolphin
Best chef
Alison Hurworth
Best sense of humour
Michael Smallman
Kindest member
Keli Selbie
Most creative member
Thomas Oakley
Most musical member
Linda West Options Co-ordinator said “Thank you to everyone who has supported Options this year, your help is invaluable and makes a difference to our members, who as you can appreciate are all winners! In particular I’d like to say thank you to our volunteers who help to deliver this service, Baltic Training and GAMP who sponsored the event, Phil Wilson for agreeing to hand out the awards and the team at Sainsbury Cobblers Hall for supporting Options.”
For further information about PCP please contact us at the Pioneering Care Centre, Carer’s Way, Newton Aycliffe,DL5 4SF tel: 01325 321234 email: enquiries@pcp.uk.net website: www.pcp.uk.net. Or follow Options on Facebook: @optionspcp
Photo Left to Right:
Back Row: Phil Wilson MP, Keith Dolphin, Anthony Bowman, Carol Gaskarth Michal Tate; Middle Row: Helen Smith, Samantha Grimes; Bottom Row: Phil Thompson