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A “remarkable” Express & Star Ladder campaign that has created thousands of apprenticeships should serve as a blueprint for the rest of the country, MPs have been told.
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Events
The MNA will spearhead a number of Black Country Chamber of Commerce events being held next week to further business growth in the region.
Events
The Express & Star has called on readers to nominate the selfless stars of the local community for the first Express & Star Heroes Awards 2019.
Launched in print and online on Thursday, the awards are being sponsored by leading local companies and brands including McDonald’s, Marston’s, whg, Paycare and HomeServe.
Following on from the success of the Great Big Thank You awards, the Express & Star Heroes Awards 2019 will celebrate the unsung heroes of the community and shine a spotlight on the people and organisations that bind it together.
The Express & Star wants to find individuals and groups from across the region who make a difference on a day to day basis to the people around them and to recognise their efforts.
To find out more, go to heroes.expressandstar.co.uk
The launch supplement in Thursday’s edition included the following article: Do you know someone who is constantly putting others before themselves by going above and beyond to provide a helping hand?
Is there a volunteer who has clocked up decades of work in the community or a teacher or coach who goes the extra mile to inspire their pupils?
Are you aware of a good neighbour who has helped your area to improve and flourish against the odds or a health worker who is always looking to make their patients’ lives easier?
We think it’s about time they receive the recognition they deserve.
The Express & Star Heroes Awards 2019 will celebrate the unsung heroes of our community and shine a spotlight on the people and organisations that bind it together.
The Express & Star has teamed up with a number of key businesses to reward the heroes of the Black Country and South Staffordshire.
We want to find individuals and groups from across the region who make a difference on a day to day basis to the people around them, and to recognise their efforts.
From the volunteers, to the young stars, from the helping hands, to sports men and women and for all those who step up when they are needed are encouraged to enter.
They may be members of your family, friends, neighbours, colleagues, someone you see regularly or someone who you have heard about and found their story inspirational.
In order to keep the local community at the heart of the awards, we are asking you our readers to nominate potential winners via the newspaper and online now.
1. Amateur Power of Sport Award
Sponsored by McDonalds
This award will be made to an individual or team that is using sport to make a significant difference within their local community by helping people to overcome challenges they face on a day to day basis.
2. Ambassador of the year
Sponsored by Paycare
This award recognises the person who has done the most to promote their Black Country roots within their chosen charity, team or hobby and play a vital role within the community.
3. Beyond the call of duty/ Emergency Services
Sponsored by HomeServe
This award is for 999 workers and members of the Armed Forces.
4. Carer of the year
Sponsored by McDonald’s
This award recognises someone who helps to support other people, a family member, friend or relative.
5. Community Champion
(Individual or Group)
Sponsored by HomeServe
This is an individual or group who has served, inspired or performed and have given something back to their community over the course of the year.
6. Fundraiser/ Volunteer of the Year
Sponsored by Mander Centre
This award is for someone who regularly puts others before themselves; someone who is generous with their time to support an individual or group.
7. Hero of the NHS
Sponsored by Paycare
This award is for people who work or volunteer within the NHS and make a difference to the lives of patients they care for.
8. Young Star
Sponsored by Mander Centre
This award celebrates the young person, aged 16 or under, who has gone above and beyond in achieving their goals in the past 12 months.
9. Special Recognition Award
Sponsored by whg
Chosen by Martin Wright, Express & Star Editor-in-Chief, this award will be given to an individual or group deserving special recognition within the local community.
To find out more, go to heroes.expressandstar.co.uk
News
This week we may find the main two party leaders have one thing in common – they started out working for MNA titles.
News
Staff at Walsall’s Acorns Children’s Hospice are “overjoyed” at the news that the Black Country centre will stay open until April next year, while the fight for funds continues to keep them open permanently.
News Titles
The Express & Star has launched a major appeal to secure the future of an Acorns children’s hospice.
Events, News Titles
Engineers of the future came up with clever designs to solve dirty drinking water problems, fire hazards for deaf people and the environmental impact of litter.
These were some of the brilliant winning products that impressed judges during the finale of the Express & Star’s STEM challenge.
Seventeen Black Country schools were given a brief to design a product that would benefit an individual group or the environment.
Each team worked hard on their products for several months, before they were put forward to a panel of expert judges at Dudley College’s Construction and Apprenticeship Training Centre, in Brierley Hill.
The competition, now in its second year, challenged students to make the products using science, technology, engineering and maths – also known as STEM.
Dudley College assistant principal Debbie Goode said the competition was about getting children “to think outside the box” as we enter the “fourth industrial revolution”.
Ms Goode continued: “We are keen to promote careers in this sector particularly because there is such a growing skills need in the region.
“There are a lot of industries where the workforce is aged and people will be retiring, and they need people with suitable skills to come up behind them and take those jobs.
“We see STEM as being in every part of life. There won’t be a part of people’s existence that doesn’t have some technology built into it, whether that is artificial intelligence, hybrid vehicles, synthetic food, it is going to be everywhere.”
Each team had an industry expert to help them and there were five awards up for grabs during the final on Thursday.
However, each participating school was congratulated on taking part and organisers said every product idea was impressive.The overall winner, judged by headline sponsor Dudley College, was the Q3 Academy Langley, based in Oldbury, who called themselves The Imagineers.
They made a range of board games for blind people. On the winning team’s table was a Connect 4 game that could be played vertically and horizontally.
The team was made up of Year 9 students. Among them was
Chloe Yarwood, aged 14, who said: “We have decided to donate 100 games to the Beacon Centre.
“I think it is amazing that people will be playing something that we designed. It is great to think we have made an impact.”
There is a possibility that the Connect 4 product could be put into production and go on the market.
The first award of the night, for Best Presentation, which was judged by University of Wolverhampton, was won by King Edwards 6 High School, Stafford, who were called Kings of Science.
The team designed a mechanical litter-picker which can be used on an industrial scale.
The Best Teamwork award, judged by KUKA Robotics, was won by Moreton School, Wolverhampton, who were nicknamed M2. This team made a fire alarm for deaf people which consisted of a vibrating pad which people can put under their pillow.
Wednesfield High won the Best Work Plan award, which was sponsored by Entrust, for their water filter product.
The last award of the day, Best Operating Model, which was judged by Laser Process, was Bristnall Hall, Oldbury.
They made a water filter backpack which could fit comfortably on someone’s shoulders. The product turned dirty water into clean and clear water, which the team said was suitable for drinking.
Team member Kaitlynn McKenzie, 15, said: “The whole point was to help people who have to travel to get water. I’m so proud that we won.”
News
Dramatic photos of an air crash that claimed the life of the Queen’s cousin in 1972 have been added to the Express & Star’s digital photo archive.Pictures of the fatal crash at Halfpenny Green airfield near Wolverhampton involving Prince William of Gloucester have been uploaded to the Express & Star Photographic Collection website.
Having been the Queen’s page boy at her wedding in 1947, Prince William was a glamorous society figure when he died aged 30 while competing in the Goodyear International Air Trophy competition.
A licensed pilot who took part in air competitions on a regular basis, Prince William was killed alongside co-pilot Vyrell Mitchell when their Piper aircraft crashed not long after take-off on August 28 1972.
In total 24 photos were donated by Ray Bradbury, the Express & Star staff photographer who captured the day on film.
Ray, 76, had kept the negatives of the accident, which made headlines around the world.
He donated the photos, which appeared in newspapers worldwide, after reading about the launch of the Express & Star online archive.
He said: “I was photographing the Goodyear air show for two days for the Express & Star, specifically to get photos of Prince William.
“I got close enough to talk to him at the beginning of the race as he polished his aircraft.
“There was an entourage of glamorous people around him as he was a very attractive character.
“He was very charming so I could see why he was so popular with women.”
Ray, who now lives in Macclesfield, followed the Piper aircraft with his camera as it took off.
He explained: “I watched him take off from my position in the control tower and then saw his aircraft veer off and hit a tree.
“I ran down and jumped on the fire and rescue vehicle which meant I was among the first to reach the wreckage.
“In those days I was working with a Nikon film camera so you were never sure what you had until it was developed.
“It was late afternoon so they held the presses to get the photos into the final editions. It was an international story which meant there was demand for my photos from all over.”
In total Ray worked for the Express & Star for nine years. He credits the success of the Prince William photographs with helping him to work at a national level.
“On the back of the crash photos I was offered a job at the Sun where I went on to work for 26 years,” he added.
The Prince William photos are the first to be added since 3,000 historic photos of the Black Country and its surrounding areas were published on the website in March.
The Express & Star Photographic Collection partnership, co-ordinated with the University of Wolverhampton and council-run City Archives, received a grant from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to digitise photographs dating back over the past century for future generations.
Chris Leggett, marketing and communications director for Express & Star publisher Midland News Association, chairs the project committee.
He said: “We were delighted when Ray got in touch to offer us his historic photos which sent shockwaves around the time.
“The aim of the project is to share local history with the widest possible audience online. We look forward to adding more images to the collection to ensure future generations learn about their past.”
After volunteers gave the equivalent of 260 working days, the launch realised the partnership’s ambition of making the photos available through a single web portal, allowing free on-line public access for the first time.
The partners are now fundraising for more images to be preserved.
To see the images go directly to: https://bit.ly/2RoTjYN. Or visit the website at: https://photo-archive.expressandstar.co.uk.
News
The first of three reporters taken on as part as Facebook’s Community News Project has started work at Midland News Association.James Vukmirovic has joined the reporting team at the Express & Star.
He has been given the specific task of engaging with religious and ethnic minority groups across the region.
James is one of three reporters to be taken on by MNA under the scheme, funded by Facebook and aimed at covering members of the community potentially underserved by local media.
He will be joined in the next few weeks by Harriet Evans and Charlotte Bentley. Harriet will be tasked with increasing the number of stories relating to young people in the Express & Star circulation area and Charlotte will work as a reporter at the Shropshire Star, concentrating on increasing engagement with rural communities.
Partnership
All three are from the West Midlands and have recently graduated from journalism courses, with James and Charlotte training at Wolverhampton College and Harriet in Sheffield.Their appointment is part of an initiative to appoint 82 local newspapers across the UK. Facebook is donating £4.5m to the National Council for the Training of Journalists.
Martin Wright, editor-in-chief of the Express & Star and Shropshire Star, said: “This is an exciting partnership and we are delighted to welcome James on board.
“The Community News Project aims to drive up coverage of individuals and groups who may not get the exposure they deserve.
“We are looking forward to James, Harriet and Charlotte bringing in stories that reflect important issues in our region but also highlight some of the fantastic people that live here.”
Facebook’s Nick Wrenn, said the aim of the project was that it “helps more people access the news that matters to them most and promotes quality local news”.