Preston’s First Proud Night: Animate Sponsors 15 Unforgettable Moments at the Proud Preston Awards
preston’s inaugural Proud Preston Awards turned a routine civic evening into a vivid showcase of community grit and creativity. Animate served as a visible sponsor of the Arts Hero category as more than 200 guests filled the Barton Manor Hotel to celebrate local leaders, volunteers and artists. Hosts John Gilmore and Neetal Parekh guided a night of emotion and choreography that crowned multiple winners and captured the mood in a gallery of 15 celebratory pictures.
Preston’s First Winners: who took home the night
The first-ever Proud Preston Awards placed local initiatives and individuals centre stage. Grace Gudgeon emerged as a double winner, taking both Inspirational Young Leader and Volunteer of the Year for her work founding Girls who walk. Arts recognition went to a professional theatre practitioner who used his acceptance to highlight an ongoing shortage of funding for arts in education. The environmental accolade was awarded to Annie Wynn BEM, founder of Let’s Grow Preston, who later secured a second award for civic pride.
Other named winners included Mel Close, honoured for Inclusive Leadership after her role organising disability pride, and John Hankin, head teacher at Corpus Christi high school, recognised as Education Hero for leading substantial change at his school. The ceremony also featured entertainment from My Stage Company and vocalist Thea Barr, and was steered by the warmth and banter of the evening’s presenters.
Why Animate’s sponsorship matters
Animate’s sponsorship of the Arts Hero of the Year Award framed the night’s cultural focus. The sponsor positioned itself as a supporter of creative work that brings preston’s cultural scene to life and explicitly highlighted the finalists in that category as contributors who already enrich the city’s identity. That emphasis put a spotlight on grassroots arts practitioners and community connectors whose activity ranges from theatre-in-education to inclusive dance and community DJing.
At a moment when winners publicly raised concerns about limited arts funding, the visibility and resources that come with a named sponsor shifted the conversation: sponsorship served both to acknowledge achievement and to amplify calls for more sustained investment in local cultural infrastructure.
Voices from the stage: winners and leaders
Grace Gudgeon, founder of Girls who walk, reflected on the night with a mix of humour and resolve: “My partners said he hoped I wouldn’t win or he’d have to put the shelves up!” Her double success — Inspirational Young Leader and Charity Hero — underlined the linkage between grassroots activism and measurable community impact.
John Hankin, head teacher at Corpus Christi high school, described the award as collective: “I couldn’t do it without the staff – this is an award for our school. ” That remark framed education leadership as collaborative and catalytic rather than individual.
Annie Wynn BEM, founder of Let’s Grow Preston, stressed collaboration as central to grassroots environmental work: “We’ve done a lot but we can’t do what we do without being collaborative. ” Her words echoed throughout the room as several winners cited partnerships and volunteer networks as the engines behind their achievements.
On stage, the Arts and Culture winner used the moment to warn that theatre and arts in education face funding pressures: “I wasn’t expecting to win! I work in education with theatre and arts and we don’t get a lot of funding. We need to try and work harder to give young people opportunities. ” That public plea, delivered in the awards setting Animate helped underwrite, tightened the link between recognition and the need for policy or philanthropic responses.
The evening’s hosts — broadcast veteran John Gilmore and broadcaster Neetal Parekh — kept proceedings moving and helped stitch individual stories into a broader civic narrative. With performances, speeches and a widely shared gallery of images, organisers ensured the winners’ moments will outlast the single night.
As the Proud Preston Awards establish a precedent, the questions remain: will the visibility brought by sponsors and high-profile ceremonies translate into sustained support for the projects and people lifting preston, and can the momentum from this inaugural celebration be converted into concrete investment and collaborative programmes in the year ahead?
