Community Volunteer Sings His Way to the Palace of Westminster

Posted at 8:58 am on 12th July, 2022

British Citizen Award for Wellacre Alumni

Wayne Devlin, a former Wellacre student and great suppporter of our events, is one of only 25 individuals to have been recognised at the Palace of Westminster with the prestigious British Citizen Award (BCA) in recognition of his extraordinary endeavours. The British Citizen Award in partnership with One Stop, is now in its eighth year and recognises exceptional individuals who positively impact their communities, charities, and individual causes. 

Wayne received the BCA Medal of Honour on 7th July 2022 at the Palace of Westminster, receiving The British Citizen Award for Services to Arts.  

Wayne is a singer who has used his art to raise over 3 quarters of a million pounds for various charities over the last 10-15  years. For the past several years h has sung at the local Christmas light switch on, where he also hosts the event, hosting and performing at the NHS party in the park, all of his time donated. He recently undertook the challenge to sing solidly for 24 hours non-stop to honour Tony Bennett and raised just under £9,000 for Alzheimer’s Society.  

Wayne regularly volunteers in the community, be it weeding, planting flowers in the local memorial garden or performing at local events. Wherever he can, he promotes his activities in the press to attract media attention, helping charities to raise their profiles and more funds. Wayne presents and performs Trafford Council’s annual Trafford Live event.  Wayne also stages his own charity events twice yearly, Croon into Christmas and Swing into Spring. For the past four and a half years Wayne has written a weekly column in his local paper where he helps boost local moral and promotes community. Again he does this in his own donated time.

Such is his community spirit, during Covid-19 when in isolation, despite having contracted Covid-19 himself, Wayne made videos to send to loved ones with messages of encouragement and a song. He also goes into the local schools to promote music and singing to the children, inspiring them to take up music.  Wayne’s attitude is that ‘nothing is too much trouble’ and he will often try to bring celebrities to events to raise the profile of the charities he is supporting. 

Wayne was presented with his Medal by Jo Delbridge, Director of PR, UK, Ireland & Spain from long-term Sponsors, Specsavers who said:

"It’s clear that community means everything to Wayne. Why else would he offer his services so far and wide – free of charge – to help raise the profile of dozens of charities throughout the region. During the past decade he has fundraised more than £750,000 for charity, entertaining members of the community at the same time. When Covid struck, and the country was thrown into lockdown, he didn’t let the pandemic stop his hard work. Instead, he used it as an opportunity to spread cheer to those who most needed it. He is an absolute community hero."

The Medal presentation was hosted by TV and Radio presenter Naga Munchetty, and attended by BCA Patron The Rt Hon, Lord Dholakia. The British Citizen Award was established in 2015 to recognise exceptional individuals who work tirelessly and selflessly to make a positive impact on their communities and society. The BCA recognises true community heroes who would otherwise likely be overlooked. 

Dubbed ‘The People’s Honours’, each medalist had a day to remember befitting their achievements. At the Palace of Westminster medals were presented by Senior Representatives from official partner One Stop, Places for People, Specsavers, Objective HR, and Big Bus London, who all support this unique programme. Following this, medalists were treated to an Open Top Lap of Honour tour taking in some of the Capital’s iconic landmarks, before going on to a post-event drinks reception and Certificate Presentation at Church House, Westminster. 

The British Citizen Award is widely viewed as the nation’s way of recognising extraordinary, everyday people for exceptional endeavor and are truly representative of today’s multicultural Britain.

Congratulations Wayne!