Burnham-On-Sea and Highbridge’s community heroes of the Covid pandemic have received their Somerset Medals this week.
The Somerset Medal was launched by Somerset County Council to say a heartfelt thank-you to the best of the best.
Somerset’s Lord Lieutenant Annie Maw spoke at the start of the ceremony before the medals were presented last week.
As several local winners were unable to attend the ceremony last week, they received their awards on Monday in Burnham from county councillor Peter Clayton, as pictured here.
Burnham’s Ian Jefferies, pictured above, was instrumental in setting up the Burnham and Highbridge Coronavirus Community Support Group and organising the vaccination hubs at Berrow Medical Centre and the Mulberry Centre.
Highbridge’s Kelton Black worked tirelessly throughout the first lockdown to support the food bank, organise food drop offs, medicines etc to people around the Huntspill area, as well as mobilizing a team of volunteers.
Burnham’s Karen Harvey offered to do the shopping etc for her neighbours who were shielding after they could not get any on line shopping delivery slots.
Burnham’s Oliver Davies has worked tirelessly as a volunteer marshal at the Mulberry COVID vaccination centre in Berrow, helping with the monumental task of vaccinating the region, as well as running errands for people who were shielding, including doing grocery shopping throughout the initial stages of the pandemic.
Burnham and Highbridge Mayor Mike Facey has worked with the community in a number of roles including the Burnham & Highbridge Medical Equipment Fund. This knowledge has been key during the pandemic, helping others in the community.
Highbridge’s Leila Browning held workshops which have been disrupted because of lockdown, resulting on these going online. She started doing support groups and gave craft challenges throughput the pandemic, for both adults and children making up craft packs for doing at home.
Those honoured across the county included local vaccination volunteers, food deliverers, PPE producers, pop-up shop keepers and a whole host of other good Samaritans who all went above and beyond to make sure Somerset kept going during the pandemic.
The Lord Lieutenant said: “The medal shines a light on those who have done so much for their communities during such a very challenging year. They thoroughly deserve Somerset’s thanks, and I am proud to be able to add my gratitude.”
Due to the high quality of the entries and the number of worthy community groups put forward, the judges unanimously agreed to open up the Somerset Medal to a second round of nominations for groups and individuals. This has now closed and the winners of the second round will be announced later this year.
