In mid-December Maldon will find out who the winners are in community awards that recognise the work of individuals to help and support others during the pandemic crisis.

Each weekday, Maldon Nub News will bring you the stories behind the community heroes and heroines who have been shortlisted for what they did for the people of the district in their hour of need.

There are 10 categories in the Maldon District Recognition of Service Awards, featuring individuals of all ages and backgrounds. The thing they have in common is their dedication to the local community.

The winners in each category will be announced on or after 12 December by leader of Maldon District Council, Councillor Wendy Stamp, with a short video featuring the winners produced.

Today (Tuesday, 24 November) we start with a look at the stories of those nominated in the 'Above & Beyond' category:

Carl Wakefield

Carl is the head teacher of the Plume Academy in Maldon. He was nominated across a range of categories including Creativity, Technology, Kindness and Team Working. The decision was made when shortlisting that, due to his impact clearly being felt widely by the community, he should be considered for recognition in the Above and Beyond

category.

Below are some of the comments made about Carl by those nominating him:

• "As the head of The Plume Academy, Mr Wakefield really has gone above and beyond when it comes to supporting not only the students but entire families in our local community. He has worked tirelessly to ensure the wellbeing of students in many ways, including ensuring those that would normally receive meals at school still had access to lunch. Above anything else, the true spirit, enthusiasm and positivity that this man exudes is inspirational. He genuinely cares about his staff and pupils and could not have done more to ensure everyone had the support they needed."

• "Truly one of a kind, we are so lucky to have him lead our academy. Carl has ensured that he has thought creatively about how he could provide a meaningful curriculum for the students of the Plume school – leading his team of staff in the successful delivery of live lessons for all students to access. He has worked tirelessly to ensure all students have access to IT and ensured The Plume Academy remained in regular, consistent contact with ALL students. It is due to Carl's creative, caring 'can do' thinking that The Plume Academy was able to provide so much for its students."

Sarah Troop

Sarah says: "The last six months plus have been extremely challenging as the community has worked hard to keep our vulnerable members safe and supported.

"In my role as Director of Maldon and District CVS (Community Volunteer Service) it was only right that I stepped up to take a lead in bringing together cross sector working and partnerships to design and develop support.

"Across the country other CVS chief officers have done the same, demonstrating the importance of voluntary sector infrastructure and connectivity.

"There were long hours and challenges but I was blessed with brilliant support from my team at MDCVS and I cannot speak highly enough of the community partners and volunteers who also more than played their role.

"The Above and Beyond nomination is warmly received and I am pleased that people felt that I did a good job for the community and grateful for the support that this nomination brings with it. I will continue to work for the community as we move through the next phases of the pandemic and I know many others who have been nominated alongside me will do the same."

Sarah's Nomination:

"Sarah has led the district with passion and selflessness to deliver an outstanding community response that has been recognised at a county level. She has worked tirelessly to deliver on an array of projects and has been the glue that has pulled this group together.

"Sarah has been leading on all of the work behind the scenes.

Without Sarah, all of the projects and processes that have been put in place and delivered would not have been possible. She has continually gone above and beyond, working around the clock and seven-day weeks. Sarah has ensured that well over 1,000 residents have been supported in multiple ways."

Kevin Jennings

Kevin received nominations in Kindness, Team Working and Neighbourliness and has earned his nomination in the Above & Beyond Category, as his nomination below describes:

Kevin's Nomination:

"Kevin was the backbone of the emergency response team from March to July. He volunteered five days a week throughout the pandemic providing support to people who were in crisis. Where other parts of the response were responsible for routine requests for support with food and medicines, etc., people who had nothing and were desperate were supported by Kevin.

"His role was to get support to them quickly; often this was for people who had run out of food days before and had nothing. Kevin responded with compassion ensuring they were given bespoke support and were listened to. As well as support to get emergency supplies he also listened and signposted to additional support.

"Kevin's role had a huge impact on the individuals that he responded to. Many times the calls that were put through to him were people in tears and scared. His kind response put them at ease and was an important first contact for them to be able to feel comfortable accessing ongoing support.

"Kevin played a key role throughout the pandemic as an urgent responder and there will be countless times throughout the pandemic where his actions have been a single act of kindness for a family or household. For example, on more than one occasion he has ensured that food parcels with extras have been delivered at short notice to people with nothing - this could be treats for children or specific asked for items that made a difference.

"However, the single act of thoughtfulness I am nominating him for was a generous act during the week of VE day where, as he prepared pamper packs to go out to the community, he off his own back arranged for small gifts to be sent to the staff working in the Maldon and District CVS office to acknowledge their hard work. This was hugely thoughtful and made a real difference at what was close to the halfway point of the response."

Ralph Springett

Ralph says: "During the Covid crisis I have been working with Maldon CVS helping to co-ordinate food parcels and prescription deliveries as well as assisting in manning the helpline. At weekends, my wife and I do the emergency deliveries and check on vulnerable people in our community. I am honoured that I have been nominated for this award but embarrassed as I feel that it was a team effort of which I was just a small part."

As well as being nominated in the Team Working category, Ralph went Above & Beyond during his time volunteering with the Community Response Team, as his nomination shows:

"Ralph has been a central part of the response team in Maldon carrying out a number of different roles for the response. As well as being a call handler on the helpline Ralph has used his experience of international disaster response to give guidance to the food delivery and other areas of response.

"He has supported the Salvation Army to prepare food parcels using local contacts to organise fresh deliveries and also going to the supermarkets to purchase in bulk items to be prepared for distribution by the hub. In addition he has carried out the role of urgent response at weekends, responding to people who are in crisis or who have urgent needs.

"He organised and supported a team of experienced listening volunteers for people who needed extra support above the safe and well checks that were routinel taking place. He visited people with complex needs at weekends to ensure they had the bespoke support they needed."

"Ralph did not just volunteer, he made a difference in so many people's lives."

Julia Rome

Julia was nominated for Team Working and Neighbourliness, but her efforts volunteering for countless hours with the Community Response team earned her a nomination in Above & Beyond:

"Julia became part of the urgent response team in Mar 2020 and continued throughout the whole pandemic, often volunteering five days a week and at a moment's notice. Her role was delivering food parcels and prescriptions to people in crisis or with same day needs. She has often had to drop everything to get to a pharmacy before closing to ensure people have vital medication.

"Julia's role has quite simply been critical.

"As well as being an on call responder for such long hours, Julia has also been helping at the Salvation Army hall taking on the preparation of food parcels to give other members of the team a break and has helped to identify where individuals she is delivering to need additional support from partners.

"Julia can often be the first person people see when they are in crisis and her prompt responses have been a great reassurance to people."

Jon Doyle

Jon says: "I have been privileged to have been a part of the Maldon District Coronavirus Response. Very early on in March we at The Salvation Army saw the likely direction of the pandemic and began to prepare to support the community in any way we could.

"We were able to speak with our fellow Church leaders and attend the first Covid meeting held by the CVS as a united Church, willing and able to stand with our community in their time of need.

"For myself I do not feel that I did anything above and beyond what any Salvation Officer would have done in my position. We are here to serve the community body, mind and soul. I am humbled and greatly appreciative of the consideration for this award and will continue to serve the people of Maldon through whatever remains of the pandemic and beyond."

Jon's Nomination:

"Lt Jon Doyle has been a key community leader during the Coronavirus outbreak, managing the distribution of hundreds of food parcels. In March 2020 as the Coronavirus outbreak began to loom on the horizon Jon stepped up. The community held the first and only face to face meeting of what turned out to be the Maldon Community Response team and Jon attended ready for setting up to begin supporting the community with food parcels.

"The first food parcels began leaving the Salvation Army church just days later and by the time the lockdown was announced he was supervising a volunteer team, working with a range of partners and building links with supermarkets, local businesses and the local authority.

"By the end of May over 800 households were receiving regular support with Jon continuing to oversee the food parcels' distribution. Throughout this Jon had time to pay attention to detail, to attend multiple weekly video calls with a range of partners, ensuring everyone was connected and informed. He took time to support the helpline call handler volunteers using skills from previous employment to pull together call flow charts going above and beyond to ensure seamless support across all areas of the response team.

"In addition he provided much-needed chaplaincy to people in the community who needed support from someone to listen. He supported without judgement and was patient, kind and approachable at all times."

Clare Montgomery

Clare received a total of 32 nominations from the community in the categories of Creativity and Fundraising. Throughout lockdown she was busy making scrubs and PPE to help frontline and essential workers and raising funds for the Big Sing choir. She raised over £5,000 through her efforts.

Clare was recommended for the Above & Beyond Award by three of the judging panel.

Some of the comments received about Clare are below:

• "Clare has spent lockdown creating scrubs for the local hospitals and face masks, selling them for the people of Maldon and our choir. She also made a lovely quilt which she raffled to raise funds. Her scrubs collection for the children's wards were my favourite. She's worked non-stop throughout and also became a grandmother for the first time."

• "Clare has used her creative skills and wonderful sense of community and caring to spend endless hours making scrubs and face masks for our local hospitals and care homes, all the while adhering to the strict government guidelines. From the start she put herself forward and has worked virtually non-stop throughout."

John Driver

John says: "It has been a privilege to be involved with the coronavirus helpline. It was wonderful seeing so many people pulling together to support our local community and I am pleased to have been able to play my small part in this endeavour.

"My role was in helping to man the helpline. I tried to help as much as possible as I was limited in what else I could do because of advice to shield myself. It was good to be able to offer practical support to those phoning or sometimes just to provide a listening and hopefully encouraging ear.

"I am very grateful to those who have nominated me for this award. I think there are many others far more worthy, but it is nice to be acknowledged though my part was only a small one."

John's Nomination:

"John attended the first Response team meeting in March and has been at every meeting since. As a volunteer he has taken multiple call handler shifts each week, including evenings and weekends and is always the first person to step up to help when there are gaps to be filled. He has been a reliable and unwavering calm presence throughout the pandemic providing reassurance to callers and effectively signposting to the right support.

"John has fed into the response team from calls received to help steer the changing offer of the response, identifying where there are gaps or where things can be done differently.

"John's role has been a steady presence throughout the pandemic. As a call handler John is often the first person that a caller will speak to when making contact with the helpline. We know from feedback that the calm and reassuring voice at the end of the phone has been so important to members of the community and John has done this brilliantly. We are lucky to have him as part of the team."

Emma Durrant

Emma received a total of nine nominations in the category of Creativity and was recommended for the Above & Beyond award by three of the judging panel.

Emma is the producer / leader of The Sound Collective Choir. This Choir operates in three locations: Maldon, Little Baddow and Danbury. Throughout lockdown Emma has launched some inspiring initiatives. This has helped enormously to keep the choir together and maintain spirits through this difficult time.

Comments from the nominations include:

• "We have not sung together as a choir (in person) since March. However, we have, with Emma's expertise made " lockdown recordings which are superb. The songs selected and put together by Emma are perfect for this unusual time. Emma collected all individual recordings and collated them into a 'choir recording. There are three songs she asked us to download and print, then colour in and pose with our poster making all individual words spell out " We'll meet again" This is on our website."

• "Emma has fought to keep our choir together with Zoom choir sessions, Zoom coffee mornings and even helped us to make a lockdown album. We all had to send our individual recordings and she has worked to put them ll together. She has worked so hard to support us all and keep us upbeat and positive throughout lockdown. More recently she has organised a socially distanced picnic and a drive in choir session."

• "Never one to give up, Emma rose to the challenge and kept our choir of over 150 largely older single people (many with chronic medical conditions) feeling positive and motivated; through Zoom rehearsals, sending individual recordings of our singing to be 'mixed' as one choir, themed evenings (including fancy dress!), quizzes and a socially-distanced picnic. Isolation and loneliness? Never! Not in our choir! Thank you so much for caring, Emma."