Wrexham sergeant ‘honoured and humbled’ by community award

A Wrexham officer says he felt ‘honoured and humbled’ after recently receiving a community award from a local football club.

Sgt Dave Smith attended the end of season awards for Bellevue FC, hosted at the Ty Pawb gallery on Market Street, earlier this month.

He was nominated for his work with Wrexham Town Police Station FC, a club created to forge stronger links between officers and the communities they serve.

The club has already played five friendlies against community sides who all champion inclusion and diversity.

The first of these fixtures came against Bellevue in January of this year, a match played at Colliers Park.

Reflecting on the award, Sgt Smith said: “It was really nice to be invited to attend Bellevue’s awards night.

“I know how much work the club does within the community in terms of inclusion and in giving people from a diverse range of backgrounds an opportunity to integrate with others.

“They’re a credit to local football and I hope their good work continues for many years to come.

“For me, it was an honour to receive the award for ‘Outstanding Community Work’.

“Although I have received this individual award I would like to accept it on behalf of my colleagues and team mates, who represent Wrexham Town Police FC.

“I’m delighted we’ve received recognition from local people in terms of what we’re working to achieve.

“From the outset, this project has aimed to break down barriers between police officers and the public.

“I feel like awards like this show that this message is getting across and that we are building bridges between ourselves and the local community.”

Other ‘Community Champions’ presented with awards on the night included Kerry Evans from Wrexham AFC, Krishnapriya Ramamoorthy from Pallam Arts and Amjid Hussain from Ty Pawb.

Bellevue FC founder Delwyn Derrick said: “As a club, we have been honoured and privileged to have won a lot of awards for what we do in the community and our justification for choosing our four community award winners, is that none of them wanted the award.

“Each one of them felt like they were only doing what was right and normal to them and how they didn’t feel special or deserving of recognition, for us as a whole club, this is exactly why they deserved our thanks.”

A mixed-gender WTPS FC side will face Bellevue again on Sunday, June 26, a fixture which follows a community match involving refugees who have settled within the Wrexham area.