THE Pride of St Helens awards are to take place this Friday night in a celebration of the borough's community heroes.

There will be prizes awarded in 11 categories on the night at Saints' stadium.

Here are the three nominees for the OD'S Designer Clothing Young Community Star Award.

 

Ben Hodge

EIGHTEEN-year-old Ben Hodge is a force to be reckoned with after not only winning prestigious awards for his tireless hard work bettering his community, but also helping to coordinate a campaign to fight knife crime and speaking at the House of Parliament.

During his time at Rainhill High, Ben worked on various projects, which included: leading the campaign for the Sophie Lancaster Day, a walk to the town hall to highlight the efforts some children in the world need to make to receive an education, leading the school’s Anti-Bullying Ambassadors, setting up the school’s debating club and organising a campaign to fight hate crime.

He also helped co ordinate a campaign alongside the Danny Fox foundation to eradicate knives off the streets of St Helens.

This led to him winning a the Liverpool John Moores University Good Citizenship award for the huge impact he has had on our community.

 

Jennifer Draper

NOT many 11-year-old’s would be concerned with tackling the litter problem across St Helens – but Jennifer Draper from Haydock took her passion for cleaning up the community to a new level when she reached the final of an international competition judged by Hugh Jackman.

Jennifer decided to enter the Film Your Issue competition – open to people aged eight to 22 from across the world, about issues in their communities and across the globe.

Her issue was the litter strewn across the borough’s parks. She creatively used satire and sarcasm to ask viewers, ‘Why can’t you just walk to the bin?’

Hundreds of four-minute long entries from across the globe were judged by Wolverine actor Hugh Jackman, US Senator John McCain, the heads of Google, Microsoft, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The New York Times, USA TODAY and The Smithsonian – and Jennifer’s entry made it to the top 18 – narrowly missing out in the top five winners.

The topic upset her so much that she is often found picking up litter in the parks with her family.

 

Lewis Taylor

EIGHT-year-old Lewis Taylor proves that true friendship never dies.

Lewis, from Parr, has had a difficult year after losing his best friend Alex Prescott who died in June following a long battle with leukaemia.

The pair became inseparable when Alex, last year's Child of Courage winner, started at Allanson Street Primary, and kind-hearted Lewis started up a friendship with the poorly boy and look after him in school.

From there both Lewis' and Alex's families became best of friends, so when things took a turn for the worse and Alex went back into hospital, Lewis visited him up to three times a week and Facetime his best friend everyday, something Alex's parents Michelle and James said: 'kept his spirits up".

Lewis' kindness and true friendship led to him being given a special award by his scout leader for his loyalty.

Since then he has even been to visit Alex's grave and carved pumpkins spelling out his best friend's name this Hallowe'en - Alex's favourite day.