VIDEO: Observer Community Awards a huge success

Held at Butlins in Bognor, host for the evening Fred Dinenage entertained the large crowd of people who gathered to hear some amazing stories from the wonderful people who were nominated this year.

For the first time we had two winners for each of the 14 categories - a readers’ and a judges’ winner, and the night saw so many individuals, schools, charities and clubs walk away with a clutch of well-deserved prizes.

Among the many highlights included 91-year-old Eileen Edymann telling a captivated audience about feeding the homeless in Chichester for 30 years, as well as a host of members from the Apuldram Centre coming on to the stage to help Julie Sandalls collect her award.

At the end of the night three extremely brave young people were also given awards in Beth Chiddle, Tom Jenkinson and Adam Brombley, while a raffle also raised money for Tyler’s Trust - with Tyler taking to the stage to speak about the charity he set up.

All the winners were given rapturous applause from the many people who came along as they took to the stage to pose for the winners’ picture.

Content editor Kelly Brown said: “It’s been another fantastic Community Awards and it’s great to be able to reward so many wonderful individuals, schools, sports clubs and charities.

“We want to say a big thank you to all our sponsors, and particularly to Rolls-Royce Motor Cars who were again our headline sponsor.”

Some of the highlights of a very special night can be viewed by clicking play on the video above.

Full details of all the winners, along with a special picture spread will appear in this Thursday’s Chichester Observer.