Woking Young Peoples Civic Award, 'Outstanding Contribution to the Community'. Winners = Youth Expedition Sinai 2007

From left to right: Ben, Richard (me), James, LA, Lauren, Barney, Will and Danielle.

Last night (25/4/08) the Youth Expedition Sinai 07 team, who went 150km across the Sinai Desert in Egypt in July/August 07 were invited to a formal evening at the HG Wells centre in Woking. We had been told we had won an award called 'Outstanding Contribution to the Community' about 2 weeks before and that we were invited via email. A few of us didn't think too much of it, however a week letter a formal invite was sent in the post which doubled everyones intrests! Myself and Ben arrived at 6.45pm however we were due to go in to the main room at 7.15. Ben was complaining of the heat and the fact nobody else was here yet! Eventually lots of people started to turn up all dressed really smartly, between 7-7.10pm the rest of the YES lot arrived, except for Craig who unfortunately could not make it to the event. Dressed smartly we all began to que to go in. About 400 people had already gone in so we were right near the end. We could not believe how many people were turning up either! We then got to the end of the que and a man took our invitations and read our names out through a loud speaker which was rather embarrasing! We then shook hands with the Mayor and Mayoress and proceeded to our table.

The hall was absolutely huge, we couldn't believe it! There were about 10 tables round the front of the stage with about 150/200 people sitting down, and about another 300 people standing at the back and sitting around the sides. Our table was right near the front by the stage. We had wine and other soft drinks on the table. Will proceeded to drink the wine but then was a bit cautious when he realised a police officer was going to be sitting at our table later. Behind the presentation stage was two violinists and a cellist with a red curtain back drop. How fancy was this! After about 15 minutes Mark arrived with his daughter Emily. He had also brought his camera for a few photos. We all had a good laugh and talked about nerves etc and then after about 20 minutes of waiting we were told the buffet was finally open. We proceeded to que and obtain as much 'munch' as we pleased. One man bumped into LA and Lauren and then apologised, we found it quite amusing because he had a plate stacked really high with sandwiches, but I guess there was not a lack of them. Lauren also told me off for taking a reasonable amount of melon but she complained called me greedy.

The two violinists and a cellist

After about half an hour the Mayor came up to the stage to do his speech. It was mainly just a big thank you to everybody he knew and worked with as it was his last speech before he stepped down. LA became very bored after about ten minutes! After about thirty/fourty minutes the speech ended. They then introducted the first award for a man who had helped serve at Woking Football Club for many years. He seemed pleased with the award. However next up was us! So we heard the announcer tell everybody about how it all came about, what we did, how much we raised etc. I couldn't help but grin. There was a large applause after the speech and then we were invited up to recieve our awards in alphabetical order and I happened to be first!

I went up the side of the stage recieved a small glass award and a scroll. Shook the Mayors hand for a press photo then moved along. This was repeated eight times. Mark also grabbed his camera for some shots, when he was suddenly called up to the stage so he dropped the camera and jogged up! There was a huge applause, I felt really proud inside, not just of myself but of everyone involved. We then sat down at our table and saw two more awards for a young girl who was the no.1 for her age group for fencing in the UK and a orphan from Romania who moved to the UK a few years ago and has overcome various operations and illnesses. They both seemed very pleased to be up there as well.

The view from our table

The awards ceromony then came to a close. We had a few more pictures with from Mark, he also took one on my camera (see the very top photo). We then had a few comical photos taken for various facebook profiles etc by the side of the stage. We then all departed the centre and said our cheerios. It was a great, intresting evening and It was well worth taking the time off work to go!

To view all of the images I took click HERE

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