9 minute read
The High Sheriff’s awards
Knocked it out of the (car)park
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accolade of Museum of the Year WORDS BY KERRY SMITH
The media flocked to Leicester ten years ago to uncover the story of how the last Plantagenet king came to be buried beneath an unsuspecting city council car parking spot.
A museum was built around his burial site and people came from across the globe to witness his reinterment.
The King Richard III Visitor Centre shone under the spotlight at Group Leisure and Travel Awards, a national awarding ceremony held in Milton Keynes, where it won the prestigious accolade of Museum of the Year.
The multi-award-winning visitor centre – which has won over 40 awards since opening in 2014 – fought off stiff competition for the winner’s trophy, with other finalists including the Science Museum London, Bletchley Park, and World of James Herriot in Yorkshire.
Leicester’s City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: “This is great news for Leicester, and well deserved. It will be 10 years this December since we purchased the former grammar school building, with the aim of transforming it into a world-class visitor centre, and this latest award helps to confirm we have achieved that.”
Phil Hackett, general manager of the visitor centre, added: “It’s fantastic for us and for Leicester to be named Museum of the Year, especially amongst such an aweinspiring group of attractions.
“We continue to welcome people from all over the UK and indeed from across the world to the centre, and we look forward to welcoming many more thanks to this award.”
The King Richard lll Visitor Centre has also been shortlisted in the Best Place to Visit category at the Leicestershire Promotions Tourism & Hospitality Awards. Winners are announced in November, watch this space.
The centre is marking the tenth anniversary of the discovery of King Richard lll so keep an eye out on the website at kriii.com for upcoming exhibitions, learning workshops and events.
IT’S FANTASTIC FOR US AND FOR LEICESTER TO BE NAMED MUSEUM OF THE YEAR
High Sheriff of Leicestershire hosts
charity cricket, festival and community awards
ACommunity Cricket Match and Festival that rallied together people from the sports, business, and charity industries and the first ever High Sheriff’s Community Awards took place on September 6 at Leicestershire County Cricket Club.
Mehmooda Duke MBE DL is the High Sheriff of the city and county of Leicestershire, a role that has been around for over 1000 years to help support the criminal and legal justice system. As part of her commitment to bringing communities together, she created the High Sheriff’s Community Awards to celebrate ‘unsung heroes’.
“Each High Sheriff brings their own unique stance and priorities to the role,” Mehmooda said. “One of my aims whilst I am in this role is to connect communities and make the role visible and accessible to the diverse communities of this city and county.
“The aim of these awards is to recognise the unsung heroes who work hard behind the scenes but are rarely seen. It is the hard work of these individuals that I want to shine a light on.”
The Community Festival provided cricket-related activities, steel band entertainment, food, drink, and stalls reflecting the city and county’s diverse community such as henna art, hair braiding, crafts, and a bouncy castle. The event was organised as a collaboration between the High Sheriff and the Leicestershire County Cricket Club and its success was in part due to the input of the community; over 98 organisations and individuals helped to make the event a success including Shirin Mansur, Uzair Makadam, Simon Winfield, Kauser Patel of Leicestershire Law Society, Taiba Lounge who did the catering and Krupa Bhatt.
While guests enjoyed the festival, there was also a charity cricket match in the Hundred format in action with two mixed teams, the Sheriff’s Foxes – v – Leicestershire Blades. Local figures from all three universities, and businesses, media, charities and local cricket teams donned pads and had the honour of playing on the pitch at Grace Road. Players included Bishop of Loughborough, Saju Muthalaly, Vice Chancellor of Loughborough University, Professor Nick Jennings, Ady Dayman of BBC Radio Leicester, Ally Statham of Premier Logistics, Simon Winfield of Red Monkey Play, Lucy Weston, and many more. History was made as this was the first ever Hundred game played on the pitch at Grace Road.
Mehmooda said: “This game gives an incredible opportunity for members of the community to meet, get to know each other and play cricket on a LCCC wicket.”
The event and celebrations raised over £16,000 for the Leicestershire County Cricket Club Foundation. LCCC CEO Sean Jarvis, said: “[The festival] represents the perfect opportunity to unite our county’s diverse communities, celebrate its unsung heroes and raise money for the LCCC Foundation.”
The High Sheriff’s Community Awards ceremony rounded off the day. Its deserving winners were put forward by members of the public for their contribution to community life. There were over 110 nominations.
HERE ARE THE WINNERS OF THE HIGH SHERIFF’S AWARDS:
Disability
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Louise Coleman
Charity
Sponsored by AGR Law
Anita Rao
Health
Sponsored by Mosaic 1898
Rehana Sidat
Women and Girls
Sponsored by Tilton Conway
Meena Kumari
Sport
Sponsored by ECB
Patsy Andrews
Children and Young People
Sponsored by Pukaar Group
Professor Monica Lakhanpaul
Education
Sponsored by University of Leicester
Christopher Davies
Law and Order
Sponsored by Pattersons Commercial Law
Mezmin Malida
Overall Award
Sponsored by Anand International Ltd
Moulana Muhammad Lockhat
SPECIAL AWARD
Outstanding Service to the Community
16 days to make a difference
November sees 16 days of activism to eliminate violence against women and girls.
Founder of The Zinthiya Trust talks to Niche about its importance WORDS BY EMILY MILLER
The Global 16 Days Campaign, launched by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership (CWGL) in 1999 at the first Women’s Global Leadership Institute, is marked by feminists from around the world to call for the elimination of gender-based violence (GBV).
It is run annually from November 25, which is the International Day Against Violence Against Women to December 10, which is International Human Rights Day.
In 2022, the Campaign is continuing its multi-year theme of Ending Femicide. Femicide is the intentional killing of women or girls because they are female.
Zinthiya Ganeshpanchan, founder of The Zinthiya Trust, a charity working to eliminate poverty and abuse against women here in Leicester, says of the campaign. “These efforts are essential in highlighting the need for change, placing a spotlight on Femicide. We stand with the campaign.”
This year’s campaign is focusing on women in society who may be more vulnerable to femicide including indigenous women, disabled women, black women, women living under fundamentalism and formal and informal women workers.
The campaign also hopes to create an international ‘End Femicide Day’ on December 6 to to amplify awareness, demand government attention and unite movements.
So, what can you do to join the campaign? You can go to change.org/endfemicide to sign the petition, advocate for femicide observatories, demand data collection on all femicides to your elected leaders and simply raise awareness in any way that you can.
Go to 16dayscampaign.org to find out more.
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Hopeful Futures
The Battle Cancer challenge London
Businesses in Leicester came together to support a group of CrossFit enthusiasts at The Battle Cancer Challenge on October 16
WORDS BY KERRY SMITH
TINASHE SIGAUKE (FAR RIGHT) WITH HIS TEAM ‘HOPEFUL FUTURES’
Thousands of people attended the event at Olympia London where they were immersed in epic heats and challenges in a bid to raise funds for charities close to their hearts.
Tinashe Sigauke and his gym pals Louis Hamilton, Joe Cobb and Chris Hollist faced endurance tests and intense functional fitness workouts as part of the fitness fundraising challenge. The team, who named themselves Hopeful Futures, raised £1,855 for Hope Against Cancer.
“Two years ago, I lost my dad to cancer,” Tinashe said in a LinkedIn post. “He fought as much as he could through the chemo but lost his battle to cancer.
“I lost a massive part of who I was during that time and still now I’m trying to piece myself together – a huge loss for my family but not one that was going to destroy us.”
Local businesses heard Tinashe’s story and wanted to support Hopeful Futures at the national event. Michael Smith Switchgear, Kings Real Estate, Meesh Consulting, JSP Business Support Services, Cross Productions, and Hamilton’s Honour gym supported the team to raise money for Hope Against Cancer, as well as Tinashe’s employer Soar Valley Press.
Tinashe attended a business networking lunch hosted by Hope Against Cancer and made it his mission to raise funds for the charity.
“I got involved to support this wonderful charity and their great work with cancer patients in Leicester. It was important for me because the charity is close to me and my family as we’ve been affected by cancer and wanted to support a charity that stands against it.”
Hopeful Futures are already gearing up for the next Battle Cancer CrossFit challenge.
“The atmosphere was electric! My body has fully recovered after a good week of doing nothing and focusing on recovery – can’t wait for the next one.”
