THE winners of Frome Times’ Person of the Year and Group of the Year for 2023 are Lenka Grimes for her volunteering and campaigning work; and The Pod, a local charity helping young people and adults with additional needs. A special ‘Purr-son’ of the Year Award was presented to popular Frome cat, Frodo.
Person of the Year, Lenka Grimes, is senior coordinator of Fair Frome, the organisation that runs the food bank, community pantry and Food at 5, and is involved in several other local organisations and events. She was nominated for her voluntary work which includes supporting homeless people and people in need in the town, fundraising, giving talks to church groups and schools, and helping to organise local events including Multicultural Frome and the Children’s Festival. Her nominator said, “I’m pretty certain Lenka is up there amongst those who make a huge and important difference.”
Group of the Year, The Pod, is a charity set up in 2013 supporting young people and adults with additional needs, their carers and families. They were nominated for their creative events, workshops and Scrapstore project – a resource for art, craft and play materials sourced from local donations.
Local ‘celebrity’ cat Frodo, well known in the Westway precinct and around local shops and cafes in the town centre, was given a special ‘golden cat’ award after receiving numerous nominations as Person of the Year. See full story on page 2.
The winners of the competition, run by Frome Times, were chosen by Frome’s mayor cllr Philip Campagna and Frome Times editor Ian Drew, following nominations made by local people.
“I am overwhelmed and touched,” says Lenka. “Frome really is a wonderful place filled with community-minded people helping each other and I’m just one cog in a wheel surrounded by amazing volunteers that give up their time.
“I love my job at Fair Frome as it’s so rewarding, even with an endless stream of work to do in increasingly difficult times, I know every day I have made a difference and it’s a wonderful independent charity that just ‘gets on and does it!’
“I’m very fortunate to have been brought up with an ethos from my parents of helping others, first appearing in this newspaper doing a charity event alongside my well-known brother Radek, back in the early ‘80s. We are all grateful to the Frome Times who do an amazing job of supporting all the community groups.
“The other local charity, Purple Elephant, that I am also involved in does an amazing job at supporting many of the same families and makes life better for a lot of children by delivering free holiday sessions and the Children’s festival, amongst many other projects.
“I’m also a member of Frome Town Rotary, one of the newest Rotary clubs, which enables me to practically and financially assist the many other charities in the town and I am thankful for their support in all the projects I’m involved with. Equality in all its forms has always been an important. issue to me and threads through all I do, which is why Multicultural Frome is another important project for me personally and I love to see the joyous celebration at this event every year.”
Co-managers at Frome charity, The Pod, Sue and Becky said, “Thank you so much to our community for nominating and choosing The Pod. We are so pleased that our work has been recognised and that this can be shared with our teams and community who make our projects what they are. This feels especially important as it is coinciding with the charity’s 10th anniversary celebrations, which we are planning with our Pod supporters.
“Special mention must go to the Zone Young Carers group that runs on Wednesday every two weeks and team Josie and Emma. Additionally, Jonathan a young man with additional needs, who is now an employee of the charity and Kym, a member and regular volunteer.”
Runners-up
The other nominees for Person of the Year were: James Lewis and Amy Wood, trustees at Dogs for Health; Jo Fordham from Health Connections at Frome Medical Practice; Terri Pitts from the Community Fridge; Angie Carlin who runs Run Talk Run; Morag Stuart, a community driver at Active & In Touch; Lauren May from Cornpop Critter Rescue; Paul Kirtley, a local musician fundraiser; Rebecca Harrison from Purple Elephant; Simon from Recovery Frome; Lesley Hooper from Refresh; and Emily from Choc Et Al on Cheap Street.
The other nominations for Group of the Year were: Dogs for Health; Food @ Five; Frome Birth Talk; Active & In Touch; and Celestial who staged the Frome Drone show before Christmas.
