Circadian Trust, the not-for-profit organisation operating five Active Lifestyle Centres across South Gloucestershire, recently celebrated the hard work and achievements of its staff at its annual awards ceremony.
Over 250 people from across the business celebrated a year of triumphs and shared hopes for the upcoming year, with 14 special awards to those making a difference in the community and the Active Lifestyle Centres a success.
The evening was hosted by Eddie ‘the Eagle’ Edwards, the former plasterer who shot to fame in 1988 when he represented Great Britain in the Calgary Winter Olympics. Throughout the evening, the sports personality shared inspiring stories and anecdotes from his Olympic career – and was also on-hand to present awards to those going above and beyond in the name of inspiring healthy, active lifestyles.
For the first time this year, the awards were supported and sponsored by a host of both national and local businesses, who wanted to share in the trusts success. Sponsors included XN Leisure, PJW, Technogym, DFC, Origin Fitness, Alliance Leisure, Gym Sales, Prestige Cleaning, Bigwave Media, Vodat International, ShopWorks, Shapemaster, ProInsight, and Omega Security Systems.
Ben Beasley, Circadian Trust’s Director of Commercial Development, said:
“After an exceptional year for our Active Lifestyle Centres, it’s great to be able to celebrate our successes with the whole team. We started these awards seven years ago to recognise the hard-working people who believe in and deliver our mission to inspire active lifestyles. It’s a great honour that we have been able to continue the awards, and that our business partners wanted to also share in our success and support this event.”
The Engage Award
The Engage Award recognises work which has had a positive impact on the local community in the past year – and it was won by the Kingswood Deaf Awareness Community Team, who have dedicated themselves to breaking down barriers and connecting with the deaf community. The team helped their colleagues at the centre to learn a new skill and launched a local campaign of social media videos to drive awareness of hidden disabilities, which over 60 people have taken part in to date.
The Innovation Award
The Circadian Trust Innovation Award was presented to the team behind the Bradley Stoke Centre’s visually impaired swimming sessions. Using innovative techniques, the initiative was created and developed for the visually impaired community in South Gloucestershire and has engaged with parts of the local community who had previously been unable to use the leisure facilities.
As the only visually impaired swimming sessions in the Bristol area, this initiative is continuing to grow at rapid pace.
The Employee of the Year
Georgina Morgan from Longwell Green was awarded Employee of the Year. A key player within the Centre Management Team, Georgina has gone above and beyond in her work, providing support at all hours, across all areas of the business, and recently covered two separate job roles in order to assist a colleague who was unable to work due to illness. She has been full of enthusiasm and a smile for every colleague and customer she meets throughout all of her hard work.
Chairman’s Special Award
The Chairman’s Special Award was awarded to Martyn Hinam, the manager of Kingswood Active Lifestyle Centre. Martyn started working for the organisation thirteen years ago and has since worked in four different Active Lifestyle Centres across South Gloucestershire.
Since he started working with Circadian Trust, Martyn has been involved in a number of different projects, from a multi-million-pound expansion of Longwell Green Lifestyle Centre, supporting the formation of Kingswood’s Deaf Awareness community campaign and more-recently, helping to introduce a breastfeeding-friendly zone to the Kingswood Centre. All of this whilst teaching and sharing his passion for Tai-Chi.
The Lifetime Achievement Award
Local swimming teacher Mark Roberts has dedicated nearly 40 years to teaching swimming and this year, he was presented with Circadian Trust’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Based at Thornbury, Mark has taught generations of children how to swim and his personality, knowledge and years of experience ensures that his swimming lessons are always fun, engaging and rewarding.
Other awards included Team of the Year, Centre of the Year, and five Quality Standards Awards in Health and Fitness, Customer Service, Swimming, Food and Beverage, and Operations.