The Philip Moorey Award for the Young Citizen of the Year

We heard from a number of speakers:

Jim Anderson (Seaford Rotary) spoke about the many ways that Seaford Rotary is supporting Youth in Seaford, and gave some examples including six Youth competitions run each year, sponsoring two youngsters to attend Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA), and providing reading and maths support at four of our local schools.

Ceri Robley (Chair of Mercread Youth Centre Trustees) talked about the various facilities offered to young people by Mercread.  One area that they wish to improve is the cooking facilities to youngsters.  The  kitchen however needs renovating to make it a more usable space for cooking by young people at the youth activities, as well providing cookery activities for the wider community.  To raise money to carry this out a crowd funder https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/p/mercread-youth-centre-community-kitchen has been set up.

Leah Herring (Youth Forum) talked about the fantastic work done by the Youth Forum over the years.  Together and in partnership with other organisations and groups they have the opportunity to contribute to what happens in Seaford.  They work on projects which improve facilities and services for young people and also work on their own projects.

Nia Waite (Seaford Young Mayor) talked about her work as Young Mayor.  To help her work, President Mandy Davis presented her with a donation of £100.

Mayor of Seaford Councillor Olivia Honeyman explained that she had chosen a theme of ‘Youth Promotion’ for her second year of office.  As part of this she is supporting two chosen youth related charities:  Mercread Youth Centre and The Youth Counselling Project.

The Young Citizen Award is named after Philip Moorey  because of the great work that he did, both for Seaford Rotary and for Mercread Youth Centre.  His passing in 2020 was untimely, and he is sadly missed by all who knew him.

The four youngsters shortlisted for the Philip Moorey Young Citizen of the Year Award were introduced to the audience by four members of the judging panel.

IGEORGE MILLINGTON (presented by Roger Daw)

George has been an active Sports Leader at school during the past 2 years, where he has volunteered to help his secondary school host transition sporting events for local primary schools including refereeing rugby, athletics, cross country and football tournaments.  George decided to follow his passion for cricket and complete the Young Leaders in Cricket course which is designed to develop leadership and life skills.  It includes 16 hours of training i.e, first aid, mental toughness, social media and advertising, ground keeping, young activators (coaching), umpiring and scoring, and a minimum of 20 hours volunteering.  George completed this at Seaford Cricket Club.  Each young leader is asked to fundraise £50.00 to put back into the project for which George helped host a family Bingo Evening at the cricket club.  This included selling tickets, welcoming people, Bingo calling and running the raffle.

HUW O’SHEA (presented by Samantha Alvarez and  Catherine Wilkinson on behalf of Bob Ellis, Headteacher of Seaford Head School)

Huw has worked over the past three years as a representative and Chair, particularly for the young people of Seaford, for the Environment Group of the Coastal Schools Partnership (CSP).  In a recent character reference Lady Antonia Lucas, Chair of the Eastbourne Downland Group wrote of Huw:

“He has represented the CSP in a seminar on the merits of introducing a new GCSE on Natural History to Sir Tim Smit from the Eden Project and presented at a Birds2BHead event at the Towner Gallery attended by Baroness Parminter from the Environment and Climate Change Committee, House of Lords.  He has also represented CSP at a consultation to discuss the design for Eastbourne Borough Council’s Black Robin Farm Project.

I consider him to be an excellent ambassador for young people-articulating their concerns.  He has demonstrated effectively to different audiences that many of his contemporaries do care about the environment and what they would like to do to contribute if they were given the time and resources to do so.

Huw is pragmatic and realistic about the challenges faced by society and is aware of the economic difficulties that prevent change at local, regional, national and international level.  Huw is a most positive contributor. “

Huw continues to represent CSP and will be involved in activities in October and November in particular the Festival of Creativity and the Environment organized by the House of Lords Climate Change Committee.

As a 6^th Former at Seaford Head School Huw tries to cascade the ideas and outcomes from these various activities to his peers and to encourage others to get involved.

 SEVYN VITELLI (presented by Hayden Roberts, Young Citizen of the Year 2023)

Sevyn has been a member of Seaford Youth Forum for over 3 years which demonstrates the commitment he has for helping others and making a difference.  During this time, Sevyn has been involved in many different projects for example the ‘Use it or Lose It Scheme’ which helped local businesses after Covid and raising money for various charities such as Care for Young Carers and Allsorts.

As well as this, Sevyn is part of East Sussex Youth Cabinet, which involves speaking to and leading discussions with groups of adults and helping the local county.  If this wasn't enough, Sevyn also manages to fit in time to be a member of Youth Consultants, a group ranging from 13—19 who work alongside adults to improve mental health for people in East Sussex.

NILANY SATHIYASEELAN (presented by Ceri Robley, Chair of Mercread Youth Centre Trustees)

Nilany has been volunteering at a local charity shop, Chestnut Tree House in Seaford for 3 hours on Sunday mornings doing small tasks like cashiering, stocking, sorting etc.  She often expresses that she feels closer to her community this way more than ever and enjoys having the opportunity to talk to older people whom she wouldn’t have the chance to talk to otherwise.  The shop also has many regulars who like to have a little, friendly chat with Nilany when they come in.  Sometimes, she feels stressed with her college workload but always prioritises her volunteering on Sundays.

After a short pause, the envelope was opened by Paul Vaesen, who then announced that Huw O’Shea was the winner.

Huw was then presented with the Philip Moorey Award for Young Citizen of the Year by Elaine Moorey, and a smaller trophy to keep by Seaford Mayor Olivia Honeyman.

Seaford Rotary President Mandy Davis presented him with a certificate of commendation and a cash prize before presenting certificates of commendation and cash prizes to the three other nominated young citizens.

A big thank you to all that made this highly successful event possible, and helped to celebrate the good work done by the youth of Seaford.