TALENTED young people from across North Ayrshire have been honoured for their hard work and dedication at a special ceremony.

The local awards ceremony for North Ayrshire participants in the Duke of Edinburgh's Award scheme took place for 150 young people at the Civic Centre in Ardrossan last Wednesday - the first time the event has been held in-person since before the pandemic.

Provost Anthea Dickson attended the event to hear all about the young peoples’ tremendous achievements. She was also joined by Councillor Chloe Robertson, North Ayrshire’s Young People’s Champion.

Aged between 14 to 24, the 150 young people gathered at the recent event to receive their coveted Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards.

These included youth groups in the Three Towns as well as from Greenwood, Irvine Royal, Garnock, Kilwinning, Ardrossan and Auchenharvie Academies and Arran High School.

The audience also learned about the achievements of Irvine Royal Academy, Greenwood Academy, Auchenharvie Academy and the Extended Outreach DofE groups via a presentation of film, photographs, music as the brave young people stood up on stage to engage with the very impressed audience of over 300 people.

Local award leaders, volunteers, parents, guardians and support workers also turned out in force to celebrate the success.

During the ceremony, Euan Hunter, from Irvine was presented with the 'outstanding commitment' award, after being nominated by his award Leader, Scott Walley.

Irvine Times:

Scott said: “Euan has excelled in his DofE group after overcoming a variety of issues in his earlier life.

"Instead of letting these issues get him down, he dug in hard with his DofE, completed his Bronze award in record time - and also helps younger members of his group to achieve theirs.”

Euan is now working through his Silver award whilst assisting younger members of his DofE group and helping leaders in organising some of his group’s activities.

He was presented with his well-deserved award by Angela Morrell, senior manager for Connected Communities at NAC.

Councillor Robertson said: “I continue to be inspired by the resilience and determination of our young people across North Ayrshire.

“I am particularly impressed by how many of our young people are doing their part to tackle climate change via the volunteering category, clocking in an impressive amount of hours to help out with local litter picking sessions and beach clean-ups.”

North Ayrshire's Provost, Councillor Anthea Dickson, who co-presented the evening, she added: “I am so immensely proud of our young people who have achieved their Duke of Edinburgh Awards.

“Well done to everyone. The awards are one of the highlights of the year and the DofE accolades are recognised internationally as a standard of excellence, so we are delighted that so many of our young people can celebrate this fantastic achievement."

Eight participants from Auchenharvie Academy, Arran High and Garnock Community Campus have successfully completed their Gold Awards and have now officially received their invitations to attend the Palace of Holyrood House in July to receive their Awards from the new Duke of Edinburgh, HRH Prince Edward.

Additional North Ayrshire schools have started their DofE journeys for 2023, including Lockhart, and will be represented at the awards this time next year.

2023 Award Recipients

Bronze: Mirren Agnew, Iona Allan, Isla Allison, Greig Allison, Lewis Anderson, Melissa Anderson, Hannah Austin, Milla Barrett, Benjamin Beckford, Ross Booth, Ella Bruce, Hannah Bruce, Darcey Burke, Olivia Burns, David Cameron, Cara Campbell, Hannah Campbell, Amber Carey, Thomas Carling, Lily Charles, Ava Church, Hollie Clark, Jenna Clark, Eilidh Connolly, Tommy Cooper, Rebecca Cox, Kharli Crawford-MacAry, Thomas Crews, Rachel Cronie, Fletcher Cunningham, Isla Cureton, Lily Currie, Sophie Cushnaghan, Ethan Davidson, Cameron Davidson, Jake Drynan, Holly Flynn, Brandon Foran, Lewis Gibson, William Gillen, Rory Gill, Caiden Gills, Calean Gills, Stuart Gilmour, Eilidh Hagon, Robbie Hale, Brodie Hamilton, Neve Hands, Ava Hardy, Molly Hardy, Olivia Hastie, Beth Hill, Sonni Hill, Aidan Houston, Euan Hunter, Kae-Lee Hunter, Ellis Ingram, Caleb Jamieson, Conlan Kelly, Cameron Leckie, Sophie Lewis, Lewis Logan, Josh Lovick, Kieran Lynn, Kaiden Mann, Jorja McAttee, Olivia McCallum, Chloe McCann, Emily McDougall, Alexander McDougall, Kate McGeachie, Faye McGeachie, Christina McGillion, Tyler McGreavy, Brodie McGregor, Rachael McGregor, Lana McIntyre, Logan McKinlay, Ewan McKinlay, Brandon McLarney, Amy McLelland, Abbie Miller, Rebecca Mills, Aimee Morrison, Hannah Morrow, Natalie Morton, Aiden Morton, David Muir, Rachel Muir, Naeve Muir, Kyle Muirhead, Calvin Murphy, Skye Nelson, Lilly Nguyen, Devyn Nicol, Imogen Nicolson, Matthew O'Brien, Egan Palmer, Emma Paterson, Ellis Purkiss, Katy Jo Ritchie, Ellie Robertson, Neve Robertson, Declan Robinson, Lucy Roe, Charlie Ruffy, Aiden Russell, Jamie Saunderson, Cameron Scott, Joshua Sharkey, Bryony Sharp, Murray Shaw, Ali Shearer, Murray Slaven, Cara Slavin, Cara Smith, Kristopher Somerville, Rowan Spence, Callum Stevenson, Logan Stewart, Blair Sutherland, Sophie Sutherland, Freya Taggart, Grace Tannock, Dylan Thomas, Jessica Thomson, Lee Toy, Lucy Truss, Lucy Turner, Kaiser Wade, Tiger Wade, Lilly Watkins, Keira Watson, Emily Watters, Maddox Webster, Madison Webster, Leah Welsh, Theo Whitelaw, Jake Wilson, Maiya Wilson, Evie Wilson, Calum Withers, Kassia Wright, Katie Wylie.

Silver: Iona Allan, Lewis Anderson, Melissa Anderson, Milla Barrett, Ross Booth, Cara Campbell, Thomas Carling, Ava Church, Holly Flynn, Jason Galbraith, Caiden Gills, Calean Gills, Robbie Hale, Neve Hands, Beth Hill, Josh Lovick, Emily McDougall, Alexander McDougall, Finlay McFarlane, Kate McGeachie, Faye McGeachie, T-Jay McKnight, Brandon McLarney, Rebecca Mills, Naeve Muir, David Muir, Elliot O'Brien, Emma Paterson, Charlie Ruffy, Murray Shaw, Rowan Spence, Lucy Truss, Emily Watters, Madison Webster, Theo Whitelaw.

Gold: Beth Hill, Abbie McKelvie, Brandon McLarney, David Millar, Naeve Muir, Connor Paterson, Rebekah Patterson, Madison Webster.

Outstanding Commitment Award: Euan Hunter.

For more information on the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award programme and the activities available in North Ayrshire, please contact Connected Communities on 01294 47590 or email: youthwork@north-ayrshire.gov.uk