03 Sep Connecting with our Community Champions

Community champions & representatives from the first Community Champion Awards, held in 2024.

Volunteering is at the heart of so much that we do here in the Bay, and yet we often don’t get the chance to pause and thank them, or celebrate their achievements.

Each week on Riviera FM, I aim to address this shortcoming by inviting someone into the studio to join me on The Volunteer Show, in order to discuss their work and highlight, in particular, why volunteering is important to them and their organisation.

The stories are, more often than not, fascinating, and for an hour, we get the chance to explore in detail why charity work, in its many forms, is important not just to those who are supported but also for the volunteers who provide it.

If you or your charity would like to come onto Riviera FM one Tuesday morning sometime between 10 am and 1 pm, then please get in touch with me via email – [email protected]. I would love to hear from you.

Once again this year, we will be celebrating the very best of our communities by hosting the Community Champion Awards alongside the Torbay Weekly. Although the details have yet to be finalised, we will be launching them in the next few weeks.

Last year, one of our award winners, Bryan Pitman, won the Health and Wellbeing Champion category for his voluntary work, in particular, with the mental health charity Looseheadz at Brixham Rugby Club.

Bryan set up the Looseheadz group after a tragic incident when one of the First team players took his own life at the age of 34 because of Mental Health and other issues.

His nomination was summed up with the words: “He has inspired us all to be proactive and NOT to be ashamed of sharing how we feel.”

However, the praise did not end here in the Bay as Bryan has now been honoured with a national award for his dedication to his club and the communities it serves.

Through the Rugby Football Union, Brian won the Honda National Volunteer of the Year award in the Connecting the Community category for making Brixham RFC a true community hub.

He founded the Rugby Cubs programme for three to six-year-olds more than 15 years ago, recently launched a walking rugby team, and partnered with mental health charity Looseheadz to train more than 40 club members in wellbeing support, with the club being part of the Brixham Bee Well group.

Additionally, his efforts to mark the club’s 150th anniversary as its coordinator included a town centre display, a history and heritage exhibition, Martin Johnson and Rocky Clark Sports Dinners, an outreach programme to promote rugby in primary schools, planting 150 trees, filling a time capsule, a timeline and wall of frames and organising a 150th Gala Dinner.

The final event was last weekend – a Community Festival of Rugby, where all teams in the club played on the main pitch starting at 9am and finishing at 7.30 pm.

Bryan was awarded a glass trophy, full hospitality to the England v Fuji match, plus vouchers for the club to spend on the development of its teams. A well-deserved accolade and proper thanks for a life of volunteering.

After the event, he was interviewed by the RFU media team and said that he was extremely proud and honoured to represent Brixham RFC and to have been recognised by England RFU.

We can’t promise reward or praise on that scale for your volunteering efforts, but we can promise a feeling of well-being for a job well done. As repeatedly noted in this column, without the efforts of volunteers, the Bay would be a much poorer place with fewer things to do.

To find out what opportunities might be on your doorstep, visit VolunteerTorbay.com, fill out a short form, and one of our team members will be in touch to discuss the details with you.

Alternatively, you can search for ‘Torbay Together’ in your search engine, which will direct you to Devon Connect, where you can find all the latest volunteering posts to consider.

And finally, if you simply want to have a chat about volunteering before deciding what might be for you, then call the Torbay Community Helpline on 01803 446022 and chances are you will get to discuss volunteering with one of our helpline volunteers.