Connect Autumn 2015 | Page 14

14 AUTUMN 2015 Celebrating Excellence At the Herald Society Awards, we were delighted to be presented with a special ‘Judges Award’. We were initially nominated for the ‘Environmental Initiative of the Year’ award as a result of our students creating a new wetland habitat at Dean Castle Country Park in collaboration with the conservation charity Froglife. We attended the event with our partners from Dean Castle Country Park and were pleased to be runners-up in the category. However, at the end of the ceremony, the Chair of the judging panel – The Herald’s Stephen Naysmith – announced there was to be an extra special ‘Judges Award’, to highlight an organisation that had submitted a number of “exceptionally high standard” award entries. To our astonishment and delight, Stephen announced Ayrshire College as the recipient of the award. The entries we submitted covered a range of our activities, including: • • • • • • • • Froglife’s Scottish Dragon Finder Project Violence Against Women Project #JointheConversation Police Scotland and NHS Ayrshire & Arran Partnership Personal Development for Peer Workers Stitch in Time – Dumfries House Improving Health & Wellbeing Needs of Staff, Students and Local Community Partnership with Ayrshire Sportsability The Herald Society Awards recognise the achievements, imagination and commitment of organisations and individuals who are dedicated to making Scotland a better place, particularly for vulnerable and marginalised sectors of society.