In February the Telegraph & Argus launched its biggest-ever community campaign as a springboard to take us into the Millennium with a new spirit of hope. Bradford's Best aims to set the seal on 1,000 years of achievement by promoting all that's best about the district and its people. The centrepiece of the campaign is a series of community awards to reward the unsung heroes who tirelessly work at grass roots level to improve the lives of others. Isobel Fox and Jan Brierley report.

BRADFORD AND DISTRICT is brimming with unsung heroes - the kind of people who make a difference to the community by putting others first.

Youngsters like 16-year-old Damyan Foster from Keighley who is the driving force behind the Lawkholme Action Group and has helped to clean up in his local community.

Damyan was awarded Yorkshire Young Achiever Award last year after working with the Council to clean up a graffiti-ridden subway, tidying gardens for old folk and clearing a litter-strewn church yard.

The teenager is an inspiration and encapsulates the kind of community spirit we want to foster in the new Millennium.

He is the sort of candidate we want to enter Bradford's Best Future Citizen, which will be launched later this year. This accolade is just one of ten "People's Oscars" being launched under the banner of Bradford's Best.

Our community awards are at the heart of our campaign designed to promote all that's best about the district by rewarding the unsung heroes and organisations which make Bradford such a special place to live and work.

With the support of the district's most dynamic businesses and organisations, the T&A has put together ten awards, launched at intervals across the year.

The Bradford's Best campaign will reach its glittering climax on December 16 when the winners of the community awards will be announced at a glittering Millennium Gala Awards night at the Cedar Court Hotel in Bradford and receive thousands of pounds worth of prize money.

Telegraph & Argus editor Perry Austin-Clarke explains the rationale behind the campaign and the awards.

He says: "Bradford's Best and its ten community awards seek to recognise the outstanding achievements of the people and organisations working tirelessly at the grass roots to improve the lives of others.

"We hope the scheme will encourage thousands of people to organise or just contribute to voluntary action in the community between now and then.

"Backed by some of the district's biggest and most dynamic firms and organisations, Bradford's Best has two themes: to tell the world why, in so many ways, Bradford IS Best, and secondly, to highlight Bradford's Best qualities, achievements and, above all, its achievers.

"Bradford's Best is about ordinary people doing extraordinary things - usually in a down-to-earth way. With awards ranging from Best Neighbour to Best Community Group, we hope to recognise people's efforts no matter how big or small.

"The campaign is designed to be a real springboard for sending the district off into the next millennium with pride and hope and the expectation of things to come.

"We want to set the tone for a new, more positive era for the whole district."

We have already launched five community awards and have received postbags brimming with nominations from you - our readers. And we expect to receive lots more as readers across the district tell us about who they think should be voted Bradford's Best.

There are hundreds of organisations and individuals who would be eligible to enter our community awards. Groups like the Disabled Children's Foundation encapsulate the spirit of our Best Community Project for the Disabled. The Foundation came to the rescue of little Liam Hirst who suffers from a rare digestive disorder which has made him too afraid to eat.

The Foundation spearheaded a fund-raising appeal to buy four-year-old Liam a special wheelchair and computer which has improved the youngster's quality of life by leaps and bounds.

And there are golden-hearted neighbours like Sandra Tinsley and her friends from Allerton who started fund-raising for their neighbour Carolyn Fitzsimmons when she was diagnosed with a brain tumour. They are raising cash for vital treatment for their neighbour which makes them ideal candidates for Bradford's Best Neighbour award.

There are many more unsung heroes in the community who are always willing to give a helping hand and ever willing to go that extra mile for others.

Throughout the rest of this year, the T&A will continue to look for the special achievements and success stories, highlighting them with the Bradford's Best seal of approval.

We're asking readers to get behind the awards, and help us to shout about our city and prove that Bradford really is the best!

Watch out for the launch of our next community award, Bradford's Best Community Business Contribution, in your Telegraph & Argus on Wednesday, May 19.

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