Award winning registered charity Sport Aberdeen struck gold at the prestigious Community Leisure UK Awards last night in Manchester, winning two of the three categories that they were a finalist in.

Get active @ Sheddocksley won the much coveted Leisure Capital Project of the Year Award, ahead of the hot favourite, Warrington’s £20m sports & health hub. A simply staggering achievement for the Granite City facility which has been transformed following a £300,000 investment by Sport Aberdeen towards the end of last year.

Fifteen year old Aimee Work, Chair of the City’s Active Girls Committee, deservedly won the Outstanding Individual Volunteer Award. Aimee was acknowledged for using her personal challenges as a catalyst to become an advocate and ambassador, championing girls’ participation in physical activity to help maintain a healthy active lifestyle.

An inspirational role model, exemplar of volunteering and exceptional speaker, Aimee uses her experiences to help others and has raised the profile of the Active Girls Committee and helped get more girls and young women to be more active – facilitated by Sport Aberdeen’s Active Schools team and the first of its kind in Scotland – to a level commended by the Scottish Parliament.

The awards recognise the extraordinary impact that leisure trusts make throughout the UK and in their local communities and Sport Aberdeen was the only UK trust to pick up two awards.

Responding to this latest success, Sport Aberdeen Managing Director, Alistair Robertson, said:

“I could not be prouder of everyone in Sport Aberdeen; our Board, staff and volunteers for helping to put our hard work on a UK stage. These prestigious awards are just reward for great team work and the partnership focused approach that we take to all we do.

“I am also absolutely thrilled for Aimee too. It is fitting tribute for what she has achieved at such a young age and she is an ambassador that the city should cherish. It is also recognition of the great work of the Active Schools team and the Active Girls Committee who work hard to get girls engaged in sport.”

Chairman of the Sport Aberdeen Board, Colin Taylor added:

“It is wonderful to know that our efforts are recognised by leisure industry experts and I hope that Aberdeen and Scotland are proud of these accolades, which take us ever closer to our aim of being regarded as the best leisure trust in Scotland.”

In addition, Sport Aberdeen’s Aberdeen Aquatics team were one of four finalists in the Workforce Development category, for their Aquatics Workforce Development Pathway which helps to enable the sustainability and development of aquatics services in Aberdeen.

Sport Aberdeen was the only trust in the UK shortlisted in three award categories.