Rosie is my sister, and she has been nominated for a national community contribution award by her village. She is through to the final three and now needs public votes to win.
VOTE ROSIE! BY JUNE 13TH
Rosie emailed me,
“I have been lucky enough to have been selected in the top three of the 2025 national Plunkett awards for Community Contribution. I can only win if you vote for me because the decision is by public vote.
I live in a tiny village community (450 people or so) in the middle of nowhere on the Dorset/Wiltshire border so I need all the votes I can get.
So please vote for me by following this link. https://www.tfaforms.com/5181293
She also reluctantly agreed to be filmed. She says her place is the other side of the camera. Please take a quick look, it is only 60 seconds.
A 60” introduction as part of an award entry in the Plunkett Rural Business awards – Community Contributor category 2025. With grateful thanks to Ed Bersey @edbersey1468
WHAT THE VILLAGE WROTE ABOUT ROSIE
Our very own Rosie Catherwood is on the shortlist of three finalists for the Plunkett organisation’s Community Contribution award! We all know how much Rosie does in the shop and around the village. Now it’s up to us to make her the winner by voting for her on this link – and getting all your friends and family to vote for her too.
The award is one of several run by Plunkett, an organisation which promotes community run rural businesses. Amazingly, Rosie is not just a finalist herself, but her submissions on behalf of Semley Village Stores in two other categories, the Nina Foskett Award for Team Spirit and the Investing in Local People award, are also finalists in their categories. She created two videos in support of these applications, and her Team Spirit video is below.
This is the Team Spirit Entry
But the only award you need to think about is the one for Rosie, which is decided by public vote – YOUR VOTE – and is the Community Contribution award. As I say, we all know how much Rosie does – so it would be great to get her national recognition.
This is what they said in their testimonial to the judging committee:
“Rosie is irreplaceable. On paper, she is secretary to our shop committee but she does much more than take notes and write minutes. She manages the weekly rota, cajoling volunteers to see that they have time to do just a little more in the shop than they thought. She uses her background in finance to think creatively about how the shop is managed – she spotted that HMRC now accepts that volunteer hours can be set against tax – and of course, when she is on shift, the shop is full of chat and laughter. But perhaps the biggest thing she does is engage with the young people in the village, encouraging some to do their Duke of Edinburgh volunteering in the shop and others simply to learn some skills that will be helpful in the future. Under her mentoring, she helps the shy and anxious become confident, competent and valuable helpers. She introduced the paid-teenager scheme, which gives them some pocket money and the shop a pool of labour for hard-to-fill shifts. As one young person she helped says, “she created a safe space for me to learn how to grow .. . she has become not just a mentor, she is also a friend.” Anyone who has watched her putting together our entry for the Investing in People award will understand what passion and energy she brings to the shop – and the same gifts are applied to many other community projects, from the fete to the book club and the coronation picnic.”
VOTE ROSIE! BY JUNE 13TH
RESULTS will be announced on the 3rd of July.
What they didn’t mention is that she reads to Elizabeth, her blind friend, five days a week.
So please, Rosie needs your help, please vote for her now.
And before you go, if you have a moment, please email this link to your friends and family circle.
The page link is https://www.cloudcortexcommunications.co.uk/vote-for-rosie-catherwood/
It would be wonderful if you could please let me know that you voted for Rosie.
Thank you,
Henry Catherwood