So well before Christmas I saw a tweet from the WWF asking for nominations for their Hidden Heroes awards. I had been eading a blog by a lady called Jen Gale – My Make do and Mend Year for about 6 months and found it completely inspiring & after reading the criteria decided that Jen and the blog definitely deserved a nomination. Here’s what I said:
1. Why are you nominating this person as your Hidden Hero?
I’ve never met Jen but I can tell you she is a wonder. She writes the blog My make do and mend Year which actually has turned into her make do and mend life, its full of her adventures and offers tips on up and recycling pretty much everything. Added to that she is very active in taking the no throw ethos into her own community running repair shops and generally inspiring everyone she meets.
Through the blog she inspires people all over the world to take the thin your bin challenge, sets up repair and mending workshops and offers advice on how to upcycle most things (sideboard into a guinea pig hutch anyone?) incredible. She does all this with such a friendly encouraging tone and is always around for advice via the comments or by email. I feel so inspired and I know plenty of other people do too!
After the holidays were over I got an invite from WWF saying Jen had won her category (but to keep it under my hat till awards day) & asking if I’d like to go to the awards ceremony to see her pick up the award? Would I like to? You bet I would!
There were 3 awards being given out that night and we had three celebrity hosts. Alistair McGowan:
And Graham LeSaux
And a lady called Zoella who like Jen is apparently a blog sensation.
The first category was workplace wonders and was won by a Scottish nursery cook who had got her kids growing their own veg and creating a wildlife garden at their school.
Next category was young superstar & I was lucky enough to have the winner sat on my table. As well as being generally fabulous she rearranged the glass shapes on the table to look like this:
She had persuaded her mum to go on a massive bike ride to raise money for the WWF and the way she talked about loving animals made me cry. There is definitely hope for animals and the planet if there are kids out there like her. Anyway here she is getting her award:
And then finally it was Jen’s turn
Awesome work Jen & a big thanks to WWF for inviting me.
