Local community heroes have been celebrated at the South Hams Community Awards.

It’s the third year they have highlighted the organisations and individuals who are doing great things for their local communities.

The awards were presented by South Hams District Council Chairman Cllr Bernard Taylor.

This year’s Community Champion Award winner is Pat Shepherd.

A Totnes resident who consistently gives her time, energy and expertise to strengthen the community.

A long-standing volunteer at Citizens Advice, Pat also supports the community through the ‘Sasha’ Charity, which dedicates support to individuals and families affected by domestic abuse.

She is also lead organiser of last year’s hugely successful Totnes Lantern Festival.

Pat brings the same commitment to all of her charity work.

The Under 18s Community Award went to Emma Chekanovskaya.

Emma and her mother arrived in South Brent three years ago as refugees from the war in Ukraine.

Emma has embraced the village and community, gained in confidence and blossomed as a person.

She takes an active part in the life of St. Petroc’s Parish Church, including readings and dramatisations.

Emma took up bell ringing just over two years ago and proved to be a natural.

She won several ringing awards, with a ringing colleague describing her as extremely competitive but also someone who works well with others and is a pleasure to have in the team.

The Climate and Biodiversity Champion Award was won by Gary Joliffe.

Gary inspires people to care for nature, recruiting and organising groups of volunteers who are united by a shared desire to make a difference.

Gary founded Till the Coast is Clear to help tackle plastic pollution along the coastline.

He also founded Force 4 Nature, regenerating hedge planting and building leaky dams.

Gary is also involved with The Dolphin Project, which wants to restore a wooden boat to use for education in the Salcombe and Kingsbridge harbour.

Across these three projects, Gary is promoting sustainable practices with positivity and cheerfulness.

The Champion Special Award goes jointly to Caroline Bricknell and Bonnie Kouki for outstanding work in January’s gas outage.

Caroline and Bonnie established community hubs which served as warm welcoming spaces and also helped co-ordinate wider efforts, supporting residents to stay warm, fed and informed.

They liaised with Wales & West Utilities and the town and worked with compassion and resilience throughout.

In a cold and challenging week, their actions made a profound and lasting difference to the wellbeing of the community.

Chairman, Cllr Taylor, said: “My congratulations to all of this year’s award winners.

Their achievements set a real benchmark for excellence; made even more impressive by the time and energy they have freely given to support and improve their local communities.

“With such a high volume and quality of entries, being selected is a significant accomplishment.

“Congratulations also go to the eight incredible runners‑up for their outstanding achievements and well-deserved recognition.

“With the strongest field of nominees we’ve ever seen, and the highest number of entries to date, the judging panel faced some very difficult decisions.”