We’re proud of our role in the community

ALL this week we have been highlighting the Chronicle’s pivotal role at the heart of Oldham as part of Local Newspaper Week.

And nowhere is that heart beating stronger than in the Pride in Oldham Awards.

The awards are now in their tenth year and we will soon be launching this year’s search for the people who go the extra mile for the borough and its people.

The Pride in Oldham awards were launched in 2002 in the wake of the Oldham riots as a way of showing just how much positive work was being done in the town at a time when the national focus was very negative.

From small beginnings with four categories of finalists, the event has grown to become the premier awards event in the Oldham social calendar with over 200 people attending the event itself.

Hundreds of people have now had that magical red-carpet treatment as they have made their way to the stage to receive their prized front-page memento of their achievement and each year winners have had some great stories to tell of their efforts to improve life in Oldham.

A newcomer by Pride standards, but the business awards was an event that grew from Pride and, with the support of Oldham Council and many others, the One Oldham Business awards is also now firmly fixed in the Oldham year to honour our best businesses and entrepreneurs.

Being at the heart of the community also means embarking on other projects to help keep a record of how life changes in Oldham.

And one of the most popular of these is the Chronicle’s First Class supplement which sees our photographers visit nearly all our local primary schools to get a snapshot of the year’s new reception class.

This is a firm favourite with schools, pupils and parents and is a fabulous pictorial record of the younger generation that now stretches back to 2001.

A more recent supplement that puts the Chronicle at the heart of education in Oldham is The Knowledge.

This is a partnership with some of the major establishments for building a better future for Oldham — Oldham College, Oldham Six-Form College, University Centre Oldham and Oldham Council — and takes a look at both the serious and light-hearted aspects of life in our educational institutions.

Two more recent projects have seen yet more interaction with people in the borough.

The Meet the Editor business network has proved immensely popular with Oldham business and the latest of these is due to take pace on Thursday, May 19 at Oldham College (5.30-7pm). Entry is free - just register at promotions@oldham-chronicle.co.uk  

And if you like dining out, why not join the growing band of readers who have signed up to our “Come Dine with Us” events that are proving a real hit as well as a super bargain as we visit restaurants both inside and outside Oldham.

The latest event — at the Crimble, Heywood last night — was so popular it sold out twice over!

Tomorrow — Delivering the Chronicle