Frome’s ‘People of the Year’ honoured with awards

Frome’s community heroes have been recognised in the Frome Times’ Group and Person of the Year 2025 awards – with Frome Community Drivers and local Girlguiding leader Janet Barr picking up this year’s honours.

The Community Drivers provide door-to-door lifts for people living in the Frome area who need help reaching important appointments, with over 30 volunteers part of the group. The service is aimed at those who may struggle to travel independently with the volunteers making 2,225 journeys in 2025.

Janet Barr received her award in recognition of more than 35 years’ service to local Girlguiding. She has served as a Guide leader and District Commissioner, and is currently leader of 1st Frome Rainbows, a leader with 4th Frome Guides, and a member of the Frome Trefoil Guild.

The awards, run annually by Frome Times, recognise contributions to the town over the past year with nominations from readers, and winners being chosen by Frome Mayor Anita Collier and Frome Times Editor Ian Drew.

Janet said, “I was surprised and shocked to get the award. Guiding has been in Frome for 100 years and it’s due to the commitment of all the unit leaders, past and present, and all our volunteers so this award is really for all of them.

“It’s so rewarding being involved in Guiding as Girlguiding offers vast opportunities for girls where they can develop and learn new skills, build their confidence, have international opportunities along with fun and adventures.  If anyone would like to get involved, we’d love to hear from you.”

Gerry Copsey from Frome Community Drivers said, “Our passengers are always very grateful for the help we provide and that is more than enough thanks for the drivers – but I know we were all surprised and delighted to receive this wonderful acknowledgement of the work that we all do.

“We are a group of 30 volunteer drivers who take any resident of the BA11 postcode area to important appointments. Most of these trips are to take people to and from medical consultations – doctors, nurses, dentists, opticians etc – but we also take people to visit relatives in hospital or care homes, attend therapy or social gatherings or even important shopping trips if we have an available driver.

“Most of our trips are within the Frome area but we also take passengers to RUH Bath as well as Shepton, Bristol and Taunton.

“In 2025 we made 2,225 journeys and I am delighted to say that we fulfilled 96% of the requests we received – a tribute to the dedication of our drivers.

“There is no doubt that a lot of our passengers would find it difficult if not impossible to get to these appointments without our help.

“We need more drivers in order to keep pace with the increasing demand for transport. It is a very easy way to volunteer to help people in our community because we don’t ask for any regular commitment from our drivers. They are free to do as many or as few trips as they like which suits their personal diary and schedule. We pay expenses to cover fuel costs and it is a very nice way to help people who really do need assistance.”

Anyone wishing to talk about becoming a volunteer driver should ring Gerry on 07701 250250 or Morag Stuart on 07596 591391 our visit their website – www.fromecommunitydrivers.org.uk

Other nominations for Person of the Year were Toby Culff from the People for Packsaddle group; Karen Patrick, founder of Frome Birth Talk and a local midwife; Mark Turner, a Keyring charity worker; and Morag Stuart from Frome Community Drivers.

Other nominations for the Group of the Year were For Dads Sake, Frome Birth Talk and the Multicultural Festival.