Nominations for this year's Gore District Community Awards opened on Monday.
Gore Mayor Tracy Hicks is encouraging as many members of the community as possible to nominate people for the seven awards.
"The district has many welldeserving people for each of the categories and it would be wonderful to see a good number of nominations for each of them,'' he said.
Last year the council took the lead by incorporating these awards, in association with the community groups that had run them in the past, into one social event, Mr Hicks said.
"Those who attended last year's inaugural event will recall it was hugely successful.''
With sponsorship from Solid Energy in association with the Mataura Licensing Trust, the gala dinner and awards function will be held on Saturday, November 1.
Besides the announcement and presentation of the awards, the evening will feature 2004 Olympic gold medallist Sarah Ulmer as the guest speaker.
Among last year's inaugural recipients were Peter and Kathy Ashbridge, who received a civic award for their services to Gore SPCA, and Violet Lynch, who received a civic award for her services to netball.
Other winners were Hayley Saunders, the Eastern Southland junior sportsperson of the year; Dylan Hanna, the young achiever of the year; Phillip Geary, for an outstanding contribution to arts and culture for his work convening the annual Gold Guitars; and Quality Building Services Ltd, of Gore, winning the customer service award.
Aaron Stevenson, co-director of Quality Building Services Ltd, said he thought the awards were "great value''.
"It was a good night and I'll definitely be going back this year.
"We didn't think we had a chance to win, so were thrilled when it happened.''
Mr Stevenson said builders did not always have a great reputation but clearly the service they supplied their customers was appreciated.
The awards for which people or organisations can be nominated are: - Young achiever of the year. - Contribution to arts and culture. - Toastmasters communicator of the year. - Soroptomists International woman achiever of the year (a new award). - Eastern Southland junior sportsperson of the year. - Eastern Southland sportsperson of the year. - Eastern Southland Chamber of Commerce customer service award. - Gore District civic awards.
Forms can be collected from the Gore District Council office, Gore i-Site Visitor Information Centre, Hokonui Gold, or downloaded from www.goredc.govt.nz
