The village of Benarty might be small geographically speaking, however its citizens have big hearts and do amazing feats, feats which the community feel should be honoured. Which is why, annually, the community nominate individuals or groups to receive the Ann McCallum Citizen and Young Citizen of the Year awards.
And this year was no different. Nominated by their peers, Sarah Morris was awarded the Citizen of the Year, whilst Lennon Docherty received the Young Citizen of the Year award.
But why them, and why is the award called the Ann McCallum award?
The award bears the name Ann McCallum because she, a Benarty citizen, and her fellow mother, friend and work colleague—both women also worked at Benarty Centre—Betty Martin successfully, after a long battle which even saw them appearing on TV, managed to get Skoal Bandits oral tobacco banned in the UK. The ladies had seen film footage of how this product, which was flavoured and packaged like sweets, was popular amongst youngsters, the film also showed a young American who’d died from mouth cancer. They didn’t want that happening in the Benarty community so they took action. Through tireless dedication, the ladies managed to get local shops to stop selling Skoal Bandits.
They did not rest there!
On 1st May 1986 Ann and Betty and their eight children travelled to London with over 12,000 signatures on their petitions. The pressure created by the campaign, the political support and the growing medical evidence about the dangers of the product led to an outright ban of Skoal Bandits sales in the UK. The ban was announced in Parliament on 26th February 1988 and took effect in March 1990.
Sadly, Ann was diagnosed with cancer during 1986 and would pass away on 2nd March 1987.
Benarty Community Council decided to honour this amazing woman by giving out the awards in her name to others in the Benarty Community.
On the 16th of March 2023, the Benarty Community Council held their awards evening. The Citizen of the Year 2022, Sarah Morris, was nominated for several reasons, among them her hard work in setting up the play group in Ballingry Parish Church, and being a great source of information and support within the community.
The honour of Young Citizen of the Year 2022 went to Lennon Docherty. At only 15 years old, Lennon is the 2022 Kawasaki Green Cup Champion, and is taking part in the British Super Bikes Championship 2023.
Both winners are set to do great things through 2023 and onward.
The nomination forms for the 2023 awards will soon be appearing in Benarty Community Centre if you’d like to nominate a member of the Benarty community to win.
See, it might be small, but a lot goes on in Benarty!
