An awards scheme aimed to boost civic pride in an Aberdeenshire town has been launched.
The Pride of Inverurie Awards will recognise the very best of the town and surrounding area, celebrating the best traders, community champions, tourist spots and local heroes.
Organised by the town’s new events and charity organising committee, there will be eight categories – with the winners announced at a black-tie gala night at Inverurie Town Hall on August 25.
Nominations are now being taken for the best businessman, best businesswoman, sports personality, unsung hero, young achiever, community champion, tourism hotspot and lifetime achievement accolades.
Each award will be sponsored by a business in the town, and three finalists will have a minute-long video shown at the awards night before the winner of each category is announced.
Aberdeenshire Provost Hamish Vernal, who is also a councillor for Inverurie, launched the awards yesterday – and hopes they will be a boost for the town given the challenging climate.
He said: “This will be a fantastic event in Inverurie.
“We will have a good variety of categories and we are looking for nominations for what should be a wonderful event.
“Inverurie is a fantastic place with a lot of fantastic people but every town and village needs a boost now and again and this is an attempt to say to Inverurie ‘look we’ve got a lot of great things going on here lets celebrate them’ and that is what we want and intend to do.
“We hope that this will be an annual occasion and we hope this will develop a feel-good factor around the town and it is also about civic pride and developing that civic pride and encouraging it.
“You can’t put a price on civic pride, is an invaluable asset.”
To nominate someone for the inaugural Pride of Inverurie Awards, visit
or pick up a pack from Coco Works, Mitchells, the Library or Strachans. For more information, visit the Inverurie Events Facebook page, and watch a video of Mr Vernal launching the awards.
The deadline for nominations is May 2, at noon.
