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The Beacon's Double Award Success

Museum Scoops Two Awards at the Prestigious Cumbria Tourism Awards 2010

 

The Beacon in Whitehaven won TWO awards at the prestigious Cumbria Tourism Awards ceremony held at Rheged, Penrith. on Tuesday, 11 May.

 

The museum’s Learning Officer Alan Gillon, won the Sheila Hensman award for Outstanding Customer Service and the museum itself received the Access for All Tourism award.

 

“The double win is fantastic and the whole team is so proud.”, said Sue Palmer, The Beacon & Tourism Services Manager.

“We’ve worked really hard to keep building on our successes since the redevelopment in 2007 and it has paid off for us – big time! We have some more improvement projects in the pipeline so you never know, we might even make it to the North West regional awards this Autumn”.

 

The awards ceremony was a glittering affair hosted by TV and radio presenter Stuart Maconie who is well known for his love of Cumbria.  The ceremony was attended by 260 guests and there were 15 award categories announced.

 

The majority of winners were presented with their award by the different sponsors.  The Beacon’s Access For All Tourism Award was presented to Sue Palmer of The Beacon by a representative from the Lake District National Park Authority.  The Sheila Hensman Award For Outstanding Customer Service was presented to Alan Gillon by Peter Hensman, the late Sheila Hensman’s son.  Alan, who often dresses up in various costumes for his school sessions at The Beacon, received his award to the background music “He's A Pirate” from the film, Pirates Of The Carribean.

 

 The whole event was filmed by the new Lakes TV company and will be shown on Sky Channel 203 every night for a week commencing Thursday 20th May at 7.30pm.

 

The Beacon team are now eligible for and working towards the North West region awards to be held this autumn, and success there could lead to a nomination for the Visit England awards next April.

 

• View footage of the awards ceremony in Rheged (a new browser will open)