Organisers of the Kingdom FM Local Hero Awards have been “overwhelmed” by the quantity and the quality of the entries to this year’s competition.
The nominations for the ninth annual awards ceremony, again co-sponsored by The Courier, closed on April 30.
Kingdom FM station manager Darren Stenhouse revealed that the number of entries were greater than last year when nominations totalled around 3000.
An independent judging panel has now looked at all of the entries and judging decisions have now been made.
He said: “We’ve been overwhelmed by both the quantity and the quality of the entries this year.
“The judging panel spent more time than ever choosing the finalists and have been amazed that, once again this year, there are so many deserving people in Fife being nominated.
“Competition is tough in every category and all of our shortlisted nominees should feel proud of their achievements.
“Soon we’ll be giving our listeners the chance to have their say on who should win the Best Visitor Attraction Award. We’ll have videos for all of our shortlisted businesses in this category on our website at www.kingdomfm.co.uk and voting will be open to the public.”
The 2016 awards were officially launched in February, with a glitzy awards night set to take place in the Rothes Halls in Glenrothes at the end of August.
The main sponsors this year are The Courier, Paint Tec, FMC Technologies, Pentland Land Rover Cupar, DPS Group, Forth Ports and Owen Buchanan Builders and Skips.
Last year 2015 BBC The Voice winner – Kirkcaldy firefighter Stevie McCrorie – was a star entertainment guest.
Mr Stenhouse would not be drawn on who this year’s entertainment would be, but did confirm that as of last week another act had been secured.
He said: “It’s a local up-and-coming singer songwriter who I’m sure will be brilliant for us. As before, I’d like to keep the names of acts under wraps until the ceremony itself so that nothing is spoiled for our guests. That’s all of the entertainment now confirmed though.”
In addition to the main sponsors, a total of 16 individual categories are also sponsored this year.
The categories (and sponsors) are child of achievement (Skene Group); student/apprentice of the year (Fife College); Provost Award (Fife Council/The Provost); sports person of the year (Police Scotland); fundraiser of the year (Ceramic Tile Warehouse); Mary Leishman award (Mary Leishman); best school (MKM Building Supplies); new business start-up (Business Gateway); best visitor attraction (Abbeyford Leisure); carer of the year (Abbotsford Care Group); volunteering (Cadham Pharmacy); employee of the year (DP Source); best community (Diageo); green initiative (St Andrews University); best neighbour (Delmor Independent Estate Agents) and Kingdom Kid Award (Thorntons Law).
