The 14th annual Grahamstown Grocott's Citizen of the Year awards will not take place as planned this year due to a lack of nominations of worthy townspeople.
The 14th annual Grahamstown Grocott's Citizen of the Year awards will not take place as planned this year due to a lack of nominations of worthy townspeople.
The Rotary Club of Grahamstown Sunset said the project will be postponed until further notice owing to the fact that only four nominations had been received.
This means there aren't candidates in each of the six categories–Arts and Culture, Business, Community Service, Education and Training, Environment Conservation and Tourism, and Sport–making it difficult for the judging panel of former Citizens of the Year to measure up candidates as finalists and an eventual winner.
"Not only does it make it difficult for the panel, but it becomes a problem for us to host the final event as a good number of nominations obviously attracts a good crowd to the dinner," Rotarian Debbie Smuts said.
"With so few nominations, it is not viable for us to put on a gala event."
However, Smuts and Rotarian Tim Dold, who has organised 10 Grahamstown Citizen of the Year events, said they would come up with a plan to re-invigorate the process. They appealed to the public to help them ensure that Grahamstown's special citizens are recognised.
"Port Elizabeth ran into the same problem with their event some years ago, when the number of nominees almost dried up," Dold said.
"They had to restrategise and give the public a break from the process to build up momentum again for a bumper event.
"We've had some stalwart nominators in the public, but it is often the same people who go to the effort every year of putting nominations together.
"Our Rotary Club has fought hard to keep the event alive in Grahamstown over the years, but perhaps it would be better to host it every second year as it gets harder each year to make it viable.
"We will be working on a plan to make sure that our special citizens are still honoured. Rotary values service above self, and we'll continue to recognise citizens who are giving of their time and talents to the community."
They expressed the hope that postponing the event may give the club and the public time to build up momentum again.
"The Rotary Club of Grahamstown Sunset believes that Grahamstown deserves to have an event like this–one in which the community cheers on the special citizens who are serving the people of the town," Smuts said.
"We'll find a way to keep it going, but we really need the help of the public."
