We were nominated for a Sheffield Transition Award and went along to the ceremony on Thursday, December 6th at the Burton St Foundation, near Hillsborough, not knowing what to expect.  I thought it would probably be a very sober, worthy evening, but I couldn’t have been more wrong.  It was indeed worthy, because all those nominated had achieved worthy things.  It was also however, extremely enjoyable and at times very funny.  There was an excellent vegetarian buffet.

In the true spirit of Transition the winners in each category were chosen in a non-competitive and inclusive manner, or in other words pulled from a hat.  The awards were all vegetables decorated by the incomparable Madame Zucchini, who also made a guest appearance.  There was a wonderful poem, an interesting tale and the event was compered by Chrystine Moon, who sang her sustainable love song: World Out There.  To see the winners go to the Awards.

Although the event was light-hearted, the aim was to celebrate contributions from all the groups.  It was inspiring to see the array of groups busy working in Sheffield to highlight sustainability and community working.  They included the whole range of services required by a city the size of Sheffield.  Education, energy, culture, food, health, finance and politics were represented by examples of over 80 groups that are tackling old problems in new ways of organisation and with a reduction in their carbon footprint. The opportunity to meet other people and network was great and many people wanted to hear news of the share offer and several prospective investors were recruited to our list of supporters.

A big thank you to Susannah Diamond and all those who organised a very good evening.

Dave Berry/Jean Tinsley