Hundreds of hard-working volunteers and trustees were honoured for their commitment to the Burton community at this year’s Burton Albion Community Trust awards evening at the Pirelli Stadium.

More than 280 guests, staff, volunteers, trustees, partners and participants from the trust flocked to the football stadium in their best frocks and bow-ties to pay tribute to the stars who go the extra mile.

The event, which was hosted by three of BACT’s full-time staff members, Paul Furniss, Reece Brown and Chloe Broadbent, saw eight different awards given out on the night, to participants and staff members of BACT’s wide range of projects, including football development, education and learning, football and education, inclusive sport and health and wellbeing.

The annual Project of the Year award went to BACT’s National Citizen Service (NCS) team, with employee and host on the night, Paul Furniss, taking home the top gong of the event, winning Employee of the Year, while three special recognition awards were also given out to trustee and volunteer Bob Haywood, club kit man Ray "Rocky" Hudson and partner Helen Gill.

Burton Albion Community Trust Awards Night at the Pirelli Stadium
Fleur Robinson from Burton Albion Football Club is pictured with guests at the ceremony

Matt Hancock, head of community, said: "It has been another huge success. It is the fourth one we have had and the most people that we have ever had in attendance. Our staff have been amazing and I thought the three presenters on the evening did a great job.

"There has been a lot of time and effort from a lot of people behind the scenes and everything went really smoothly on the night. As well as the night being fantastic, I am just really proud of our workforce.

"The support from everyone has been magnificent and it was great to see so many different types of people in the room on the night. People from companies and businesses, to charities, individuals and volunteers on programmes. We had everything there and it was a privilege to just sit there and listen to people talking about the community trust and what we do.

Burton Albion Community Trust Awards Night at the Pirelli Stadium
Burton MP Andrew Griffiths is pictured alongside his wife Kate, Mayor of East Staffordshire Simon Gaskin and his wife Jane

"Football and sport just has that power, for whatever reason it is, to inspire, engage and educate and you’ve seen many stories of people who have had life-changing moments because of Burton Albion Football Club and community trust, which is something money can’t buy!"

Mike Evans, EFL Trust director of operations, was also full of praise for the evening. He said: "It was an absolutely outstanding evening. I really enjoyed the presenters and I thought it was fantastic that all the staff got involved. Rather than just hearing from one voice, we were hearing from everyone in the team, which was really good.

"BACT have been a deserved winner of the regional community club of the year, for the last two years. I have known of the work of Burton Albion since they came into the Football League, as I was regional manager at the time, and I saw how the trust started on its community journey.

"So, to look at where they are now is just absolutely incredible in such a short space of time. I think the club needs to be very, very proud of its community trust."

Burton Albion Community Trust Awards Night at the Pirelli Stadium
280 guests were on hand to celebrate at the awards ceremony

And the winners are:

The star award for football development went to Mia Oakes and was presented by Fleur Robinson from Burton Albion FC.

Sameeya Hussain took home the award for volunteer of the year which was presented by Michelle Horler from Pirelli.

The star award for education and learning was awarded to Danny Turner by Amrit Virk from Burton and South Derbyshire College.

Megan Herbstritt impressed judges to be awarded the football and education award which was given to her by Ray Garlick and Peter Marples from Raygar Supplies.

Burton Albion Community Trust Awards Night at the Pirelli Stadium
Burton Albion chairman Ben Robinson is pictured talking to guests at the event

Marvin Ceiley was awarded the star award for inclusive sport by Dan Johnson from ADS Accountancy while Andrew Forrest was awarded the health and wellbeing accolade by Tony Brealey from Reabrook Ltd.

The award for project of the year went to BACT National Citizen Service (NCS) and was presented by Nadeem Lal from Palletforce.

Paul Furniss took home the prestige title of employee of the year and was awarded the trophy by Prad Mistry from Ashfield Healthcare.

What is BACT?

Burton Albion Community Trust (BACT) is a registered charity and an award winning organisation. BACT deliver programmes across five main themes: Participation, Social Inclusion, Disability, Education and Health. Having such a variety of themed programmes enable BACT to be an influential partner in all aspects of the local community and also allow us to have a wider impact both regionally and nationally.

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