Last day to nominate for Tele Spirit awards

THERE are just hours left to get your nominations in for the Evening Telegraph Community Spirit Awards.

The deadline is midnight today for you to tell us about the local heroes making a difference in your area, whether they have showed courage, made your streets safer or inspired the people around you.

They could be recognised at our glitzy awards bash at the Apex Hotel on February 10 — but only with your help.

With Christmas just around the corner, we caught up with the Christmas Toy Appeal team, who scooped the Public Services Team Award last year and are busy making this year’s appeal the biggest yet.

Kiley West, Opportunities for All manager at Discover Opportunities, oversees the programme, which counts musicians The Charlatans, Paolo Nutini, The View and The Proclaimers among its fans.

She said: “We started on this year’s appeal as soon as last year’s ended.

“We’ve doubled the number of referrals we get each year.

“We raise funds through the year as we seem to get a lot of gifts for wee children but it doesn’t match the number of teenagers we get so we buy to match them.”

A team of Santa’s helpers, including youth volunteers, local businesses and supporters from Hilton Hotels and SGN will begin packing the presents on Monday.

Gifts will then be passed to social workers who, on behalf of Santa, will distribute them to referred children across the city.

Kiley added: “At the start we decided that we should keep the magic of Christmas going.

“Being a child is hard enough as it is — if we can do this little bit to keep their childhood going that’s what we will do.

“It’s all done over and above our own jobs too.

“We couldn’t do it without our partnerships.

“To know that a child is going to get something on Christmas makes it all worthwhile.”

For more information, call the team on 01382 434460.

But don’t forget to get your nominations in for the Community Spirit Awards.

Log on to etcommunityspirit awards.com or call 01382 575308. Remember, entries close at midnight.

Events managers Laura Adam, Kerry Findlay, Dawn Campbell and Victoria Tait, senior events manager. Inset: Kiley West of the Christmas Toy Appeal.