As we start to look back on previous winners of Highways Heroes awards we feature one of our winners with possibly the strangest stories of all, Rich Smith of Keltbray.
The reason Rich's nomination was actually a little out of the ordinary is that not only was he nominated for a special recognition award for social value, but was also a member of the judging panel for the event, as Heroes founder Kevin Robinson explains,
"Rich's nomination certainly threw a bit of a spanner into the works when it came to judging and resulted in some very squeaky bum moments as we tried to keep the fact that not only was he nominated but actually also shortlisted from him."
From producing a totally individual judging pack, to ensuring that the had no idea on the night the herculean effort required the intervention from his former Managing Director, Vip Gandhi and Chief Executive, Darren James who effectively ordered him that he had to be at the event.
"Thankfully it all worked out in the end," Mr Robinson continued, "and we managed to keep the pretence going right up until we announced him winning in a rather unique way, through the animated characters in the "When I grow up" books series he was nominated for in the first place."
Entires for the industry's premier awards ceremony are now open!
Following last years highly successful #highwaysheroes awards, entries for this year's event are now open.
Climaxing in a glittering awards ceremony at the London Hilton, Park Lane, on 28th November 2024, the event remains the only ceremony which truly recognises those unsung heroes in our sector.
The Highways Heroes Awards come after a time of unprecedented challenge not only in our industry, but as part of our everyday lives.
We believe this is the ideal time to celebrate the hard work and success of our workers, who have coped admirably in the face of adversity, to recognise the heroic actions of them which, until now, has gone unnoticed.
There are no specific categories or minimum criteria as we know the selfless acts of those in our industry know no boundaries. However, to give you some guidance, you can nominate someone for a random act of kindness, for courage, bravery or even saving a life. Maybe it’s someone who took it upon themselves to help a charity and got their company and colleagues on board to ‘just do more’ or perhaps it’s someone in the office who always goes over and above to help the team…the list is endless.