Property’s rising stars were yesterday recognised for their contributions to charity at the annual LandAid Ambassadors’ Awards.
The event, held at the Walkie Talkie’ and sponsored by DWF, recognised those who had organised outstanding fundraising and awareness-raising initiatives for LandAid in 2016. Richard Trubshaw, Associate Director at Paragon Building Consultancy, walked away with the top prize of Most Outstanding Ambassador’ for his efforts which included climbing 24 peaks in the Lake District with 24kg of sand on his back, providing free property advice to a LandAid project and donating survival kits to a homeless shelter.
In the Best Fundraising’ category, Palmer Capital’s Emma Murray won first prize having organised a series of cycling, abseiling and poker events which raised an impressive £30,000. Victoria Prew of Knight Frank took the award for Increasing Awareness’ thanks to a well-executed communications campaign around her Kilimanjaro trek which involved giving interviews and presentations, and creating a website. The property industry’s annual ski trip, Propski, walked away with the Best Collaboration’ prize.
Speaking at the event were Paul Morrish, CEO of LandAid and Sean, a young man who had previously been homeless. Sean spoke of the support he received from a LandAid-funded project, St Basils, which found him accommodation when he had nowhere to turn, helped him with his mental health issues and gave him the opportunity to influence government policy as part of the Youth Homeless Parliament.
LandAid’s Ambassador scheme has been running since 2014 and now boasts 270 members. The programme trains enthusiastic property professionals to raise funds and promote LandAid within their companies. A full list of award nominees can be found on the LandAid website.
Paul Morrish, Chief Executive of LandAid, said: ‘Last night marked the culmination of another incredibly successful year for our Ambassador programme. From climbing mountains and abseiling buildings to giving their well-honed property skills for free, our Ambassadors’ dedication and creativity has been inspiring. That 270 of the industry’s rising stars give so much of their time and energy to support vulnerable young people makes me immensely proud. A huge thank you to you all, and congratulations to our award winners.’
Thanks to our trophy sponsors: ‘Increasing Awareness’ sponsored by UK Property Professionals, ‘Increasing Fundraising’ sponsored by Carter Jonas, ‘Most Successful Collaboration’ sponsored by Malcolm Hollis and ‘Outstanding Ambassador’ sponsored by M&G Real Estate.