Young Citizen of the Year 2022

On Friday 18^th November around 50 people assembled at Mercread Youth Centre to see Hayden Roberts declared Young Citizen of the Year 2022. But the evening was about more than that. In his opening remarks Paul Vaesen, Chair of Seaford Rotary Youth Services, explained that this was to be a ‘Celebration of Seaford Youth’ as well as a presentation evening.

It started with Paul talking about how Seaford Rotary’s support of Youth had grown in the last 10-12 years, starting with the introduction of one to one reading support for Year 7 students at Seaford Head School, which soon extended to Maths support and one to one reading at Annecy Catholic Primary School and Seaford Primary School. We have also introduced several Youth competitions, starting with Young Musician and Young Chef, now extended to Writer, Artist, Photographer and Scientist, the last of these being run by Seaford Head School.

As well as providing service and running events we also provide financial support in a whole range of different areas. These include:  support for SHS students going on World Challenge adventures, support for two of our Primary Schools who take part in Young Voices at the O2 Arena in London, enabling three Seaford youngsters with Spina Bifida to attend a “Breakaway” weekend organised by one of the Eastbourne Rotary Clubs, Seaford Baptist Church for its Cabin youth activities, Lake Dance Academy for two young dancers to take part in a world dance event in Spain, a Home Educated group who wished to hire Mercread Youth Centre and support for Safety in Action where all Year 6 pupils at Primary Schools in the Lewes area spend half a day at The Fort at Newhaven. We also give financial support to our Young Mayor. We have a lot to celebrate.

One thing that Seaford Rotary has done for many years is to pay for two or three youngsters to attend the Rotary Youth Leadership Award (RYLA) week. Past Seaford Young Mayor Joe Lacy was one of the three who attended this year and he spoke about his experiences and said how much he had benefitted from it.

We then heard from Ceri Robley from Mercread Youth Centre, who talked about the many activities that were offered. She also mentioned that they were looking forward to introducing new activities soon.

Next Roger Daw, past chair of Mercread Youth Centre made us aware of the excellent work done by the Youth Forum over the years. This group, based at Mercread Youth Centre, is always looking for new community projects and carries out fundraising to support these. One example is the outdoor gym at the Salts Recreation Ground, and there are many others. They do excellent work and are a credit to the Youth of our town.

We then heard from Seaford Young Mayor Erin Franklin, who described the work that she is doing with Seaford Environmental Alliance to promote ‘Plastic Free Seaford’. She will have a stall at ‘Seaford Magic’ on 3^rd December where she will be giving away reusable cups to encourage people away from buying coffee in non-reusable cups which are one of the biggest contributors to pollution of our environment.

Paul mentioned earlier that one of the things Seaford Rotary did was to give financial support to the Young Mayor, and he presented Erin with a cheque for £100 to go towards her project, part of which will be spent on a card reader that can be passed from one Young Mayor to the next.

We finally moved on to the Philip Moorey Young Citizen Award, starting with Paul reading out a statement about Philip Moorey from Tony Lees, past Chair of Mercread Youth Centre and past President of Seaford Rotary, who unfortunately couldn’t be with us in person. Tony said “I knew Philip for a long time, both as a Rotarian, where he was Treasurer for a number of years and at Mercread Youth Centre where he was a committee member, then Treasurer. He was a mild-mannered, caring man, and worked hard at everything that he was involved with. Philip would always be there, whether it was the Rotary Christmas Sleigh, the Boot Fairs, and even ‘shaking a tin’ in Broad Street for charity collections. His passing in 2020 was untimely and he is sadly missed by all who knew him”. Everyone who knew Philip would agree with Tony’s sentiments, and it is right that we have named this award in his honour.

There were three youngsters who were shortlisted for the Philip Moorey Award: Isla McKellar, Rose Millington and Hayden Roberts, and three members of the judging panel spoke about them.

Isla McKellar, presented by Roger Daw. Isla has attended Titan Kids and Teens Fitness since she was 8 years old, competing in kids crossfit competitions and

most recently competing in crossfit competitions at an advanced level. although she’s still a teen, she has competed against adults and placed in the top 5 in these competitions. Isla has inspired young girls and also young boys to join Titan Kids and Teens Fitness which is crossfit style workouts aimed specifically towards local young people. Isla coaches young children and this support proved invaluable as we emerged from lockdown. Thanks to Isla’s input, more than 40 young people regularly attend fitness sessions.

Rose Millington, presented by Bob Ellis, Headteacher of Seaford Head School. In 2018, Rose initiated a school bake sale raising £300.00 for a netball match kit at Seaford Head. Soon after, she started volunteering at Seaford Netball Club (for DofE experience). After lockdown Rose decided to gain her England Netball INTO Officiating award in 2021 and is currently umpiring in the local Junior Netball league. She completed her Level 2 Leadership Award - Apprentice Coaching Programme in 2022. Rose's aim is to be a positive role model bringing netball and sport in general to as many young people as possible, especially trying to keep females in sport for as long as possible. Rose has now contributed 118 hours of volunteering to the local area through the England Netball Pass on your Passion scheme.

Hayden Roberts, presented by James Jenkins, past Young Mayor of Seaford. Hayden has been an inspiration to his peers. Through his work with the Youth Forum, the Youth Cabinet, the Youth Trust and the East Sussex Community Voice, he tirelessly campaigns to improve society for the benefit of everyone. Typical projects include: Fund raising for Bike Racks for Seaford seafront; attending Impact Seaford meetings (designing The Town Development Plan to 2030); campaigning on knife crime, domestic violence and the environment; hosting 2020 School Democracy Awards at the Houses of Parliament; volunteering on Young Health Watch. There are many more, but Hayden also finds the time to perform with Seaford Musical Theatre..

So, finally, Hayden Roberts was announced the winner and was presented with the Philip Moorey Award for Young Citizen of the Year 2022 by Elaine Moorey. He was also given a smaller trophy to keep by Seaford Deputy Mayor Liz Boorman, and then Seaford Rotary President Ann Reed presented him with a cash prize of £100 from Seaford Rotary and Elaine Moorey. Ann went on to present cash prizes to Isla McKellar and Rose Millington which had ben donated by Mercread Youth Centre.

Our thanks go to:

·      Mercread Youth Centre for providing the venue and cash prizes for the runners up.

·      The Youth Forum for acting as hosts.

·      Elaine Moorey for donating prize money for the winner.

·      Morrisons for providing the wine and other drinks for the evening.

It was a great evening, and we certainly celebrated Seaford Youth!