Young awards winners announced for 2022

Winners have been announced for The Midlothian’s Young People Awards (MYPA) 2022 at a special ceremony at Rosslyn Chapel.

Contribution to the local community

These awards are open to young people living, working or studying in Midlothian whose contribution to their local community deserves to be recognised.

Five categories

There are five categories, and the awards are organised by Midlothian Council in conjunction with the Lord-Lieutenant of Midlothian.

Young Ambassadors

The awards are supported by Midlothian Young Ambassadors who are selected for their commitment and ability as young leaders or volunteers.

Judging panel

Winners were selected by panel of 15 young people from the Midlothian Youth Platform.

Senior officials attended ceremony

Midlothian Council Chief, Executive Grace Vickers, welcomed everyone to the event which was hosted by Group Service Manager Annette Lang. Prizes were presented by Midlothian Provost, Cllr Debbi McCall and Midlothian’s Lord-Lieutenant, Lt Col Richard Callander.

Prizes

Winners received certificates and a trophy. A charitable donation was also made on behalf of winners to a charity of their choice. There were two winners in each of the five categories.

Full list of winners of Midlothian’s Young People’s Awards 2022:

Category	Winner	Winner
Caring & Volunteering	Callum Semple	Candice Clarke
Local Community	Beth Key	Kayleigh Hutchison
Sport & Physical Activity	Samanatha Louise Gough	Chloe Barron
Arts & Culture	The Amazing Brains	Connor Stewart
Achievement in Learning	Ciara Wilson	Caitlyn Daly
Midlothian Award	Savannah Kay

Midlothian’s Lord-Lieutenant

Commenting on the young people’s achievements Midlothian’s Lord-Lieutenant, Lt Col Richard Callander said:

“This year's awards were a wonderful opportunity to recognise some amazing young people in Midlothian and to hear their inspiring stories. It was a huge pleasure to meet them all and I would congratulate all of this year's winners again for all they have done and, of course, encourage them to keep making such a valuable contribution to Midlothian life in future."

Celebrating young people

Midlothian Provost, Cllr Debbi McCall said:
"Congratulations to all the winners at the Midlothian Young People Awards 2022. These awards provide a wonderful opportunity to celebrate our young people's resilience and positive spirit. I am very impressed by our winners who are all a credit to Midlothian. They should be very proud of their achievements. Finally, a big thank you to everyone who took the time to make a nomination. ”

More details on winners / runners up

Caring and Volunteering Award

Winner 1: Callum Semple
Callum volunteers and assists with sports coaching for people with a range of learning disabilities. He has been involved in coaching from a young age and gives up his free time on a weekly basis. During the school holidays he attends 2-3 sessions per week and also gives up his time to attend local and national sports competitions, with the disabled athletes.

Winner 2: Candice Clarke
Candice has been volunteering with the Salvation Army and the British Heart Foundation Charity Shops. She has committed to 2 days a week all through the summer holidays and continues to do so even with a full-time college course. Candice has now completed over 407 hours of volunteering.

Local Community Award

Winner 1: Beth Kay
Beth is a Guide Helper at a local Brownie Unit. She attends this attends every week and supports adult volunteers with preparing and running activities for the younger children. For the past year she has also started helping at another local Rainbow unit, giving up a second evening to help support adult volunteers in the delivering of activities. She also gives up her time at weekends to support trips and residential activities. This is all on top of the great amount of volunteering that she does for her local Community Development Trust in Rosewell.

Winner 2: Kayleigh Hutchison
Over the past year, Kayleigh has been collecting surplus food from Costco to redistribute within the community in order to reduce food wastage. As part of this Kayleigh has been posting pictures of surplus food on Facebook to show people what is available. This has helped numerous families. Kayleigh is enrolled in the Foundation Apprenticeship in Hospitality which she has attended every week - even when she was then only person left in her group.

Sport and Physical Activity Award

Winner 1: Samantha Louise Gough
Samantha is a multi-talented para-athlete training and competing in several sports. Samantha has no vision so faces many challenges but has proven her ability at Woman's Blind Football in many ways including winning a Silver Medal at the European Blind Football Championships in Italy in June. She has also been selected for The World Championships in Portugal at the end of this year and at the World Games in Birmingham in August 2023.

Winner 2: Chloe Barron
Chloe is involved in competitive Swimming and Volunteering. She competes at Scottish Schools, District and British level, attaining a very high accolade in her discipline. Recently Chloe took part in the Scottish National Age Group competitions and came 1st in the 200 metres Backcrawl and 2nd in 200 metres Butterfly and also in the 100 metres Backcrawl.

Arts and Culture Award

Winner 1: The Amazing Brains
The Amazing Brains Art Project uses the medium of art to make a difference to other young people. Using art to practice leadership, business and entrepreneurial skills is part of the ethos at the Art Club. Amongst the many works they have produced is a video entitled ‘A Walk in our School Shoes’ to communicate how they feel about school. This is being incorporated into the teacher training course at Queen Margaret University

Winner 2: Connor Stewart
Connor is an outstanding musician who has excelled in his music qualifications during his time at Newbattle High. He is a excellent guitarist and leads the school rock band and guitar group. He is totally committed to supporting the school Music Department. Connor always assists staff by setting up equipment at the start of rehearsals and by taking a lead role in managing the school recording studio. He has used his skills to set up and run the sound and lighting desks in the main school theatre for concerts, shows and events.

Achievement in Learning Award

Winner 1: Ciara Wilson
Ciara has written an award winning, emotive, imaginative letter centred around a WW1 soldier writing to their teacher as part of the Poppy Scotland competition. She also went on to write an incredible poem about living with anorexia. Ciara’s mature interpretation of the task provided a talking point for her peers around the invasive thoughts that young people can experience.

Winner 2: Caitlyn Daly
Caitlyn is a remarkable young person, who despite dealing with personal trauma and adversity has managed to achieve a lot. Caitlyn is currently an active member of the Midlothian House Project which works with young people to develop relationships and to support them to learn skills that enable them to live successful adult lives. She has successfully completed all her House Project Learning Modules. In addition, Caitlyn is studying towards a HNC in Childcare

Midlothian Prize

The Midlothian Prize is chosen from all the nominations and awarded for recognition for an outstanding contribution to Midlothian as a whole.

Winner: Savannah Kay
Savannah is a care experienced young person who lives in a young person's home that has experienced change over the summer period. Savannah has gone out of her way to offer reassurance to other young people new to the House to help them to settle. This has made an immense difference to their lives.

8 Dec 2022

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