On Saturday 20th April 2013, we were extremely proud to announce that team Call Out list member Paul Copley who joined the team in November 2010, and is a BT employee, had been informed that after a rigorous selection process, he had been invited by his employer as one of only twelve national finalists, to attend the BT Chairman’s Awards 2013, to be held in London.

Paul was selected as a finalist for his voluntary work with the Bolton Mountain Rescue Team, and today journeyed to the Awards Ceremony, held in the prestigious setting of the BT Tower, London.

At todays Awards Ceremony, short films profiling each of the finalists were shown in the auditorium, (Filming of Paul with some of his team colleagues took take place on Sunday 28th April 2013)

Paul in his time with the team, has applied for and successfully gained a BT People Award for his work in the team, in November 2012, and a BT Community Champions Award in March 2012, and March 2011. These three Awards gained by Paul Copley have resulted in BT very kindly awarding the team a total of £1,460.00 in donations related to the awards.

Run by BT, the BT People Awards Scheme and its forerunner, the BT Community Champions Awards Scheme rewards BT employees with funding where they volunteer their time for local community groups, charities and organisations. (Please also see website ‘News’ reports dated Thursday 22nd November 2012, Tuesday 20th March 2012 and Wednesday 16th March 2011)

At the Awards Ceremony today we are very pleased to announce that although Paul was not selected as the finalist, he was nevertheless selected as the finalist in his category, with a fantastic donation of £500.00 being presented to him for the work of Bolton MRT.

The whole team membership sends Paul every success for reaching the prestigious final of the BT Chairman’s Awards 2013 Ceremony today, and for being selected for the special honour of being a finalist in his category.

The below is a personal account of the Award’s Ceremony by Paul Copley.

“On the morning of the 11th June in the company of my wife Louise, we arrived at the BT Tower for the BT Chairman’s awards along with the other nineteen finalists and VIP guests on the day.
We were met in reception of the Tower and invited to have drinks before the Event started.

Then all finalist and the many guests present were invited into the auditorium for the awards.

The awards were introduced by Joe McDavid HR Director of Openreach.

Then we watched each of the category finalists short films about the voluntary work they do followed by the announcements of the winners and runners up, which were presented to the each person by Sir Michael Rake Chairman of BT.

All 20 films of 3 minutes duration for each person were fantastic, the work the people have done for the respective charities was fascinating to see.

The category I was involved in as being part of Bolton Mountain Rescue Team was the Civic category.

I was absolutely delighted to be chosen as the winner for the Civic category meaning Bolton Mountain Rescue Team also received a very supportive donation of £500.00 from BT.

After the awards we all moved up to the 34th Floor of the world famous BT Tower to a champagne and strawberry reception, followed by Lunch and a chance and to meet and chat with the other finalists and VIP guests
I would like the thank the BT Event Team for organising this fabulous event and Sir Michael Rake and BT for being so supportive to myself and all other BT employees who give their time to volunteer, and to thank BT for their fantastic donation to Bolton Mountain Rescue Team of £500.00.

Please also see website ‘News’ reports dated Saturday 20th April 2013 and Sunday 28th April 2013.