A DROITWICH estate agent narrowly missed out on a prestigious national fund-raising award after spearheading a campaign to rebuild the town’s Lido Park play area following a devastating fire.
Matt Nicol, of Matt Nicol & Co, rallied the community last year and saw more than £18,000 collected in 28 days, thanks to donations from generous companies, parents and grandparents and through charity events were organised, such as a car wash by Droitwich Fire Service.
Such was the response that the play area was able to open less than a month after the blaze.
Matt’s sterling efforts led to him being put forward for the 2015 JustGiving Awards and, despite there being 20,000 nominations across the categories, he was shortlisted, making it through to the final three in the ‘Community Crowdfunder of the Year’ section.
A video filmed at Matt Nicol’s office and showing the newly revamped Lido Park play area was shown during the prestigious Justgiving Awards ceremony at The Brewery in London on Wednesday (September 23) where he was narrowly beaten to the top prize.
The JustGiving ‘Community Crowdfunder of the Year’ award went to Tracey Ford who, having lost her own son to youth violence, raised £600 to buy bouquets of flowers for bereaved mums on Mother’s Day.
Matt told The Standard: “It was an amazing evening – to be part of it was just fantastic.
“There were so many people who had been through so much or who have been doing some amazing things for good causes.
“I want to say a big thank you to whoever it was who nominated me and for everyone who voted for me.”
