The passing of Keith Chilvers yesterday has devastated so many people. The news quickly circulated around social media, causing an out pouring of grief.
Since we announced the terrible news, we have received an overwhelming amount of people sharing their memories and condolences.
Add your stories, memories and condolences to our condolence page here.
Volunteer Trevor Larter was awarded the Jack Petchey Leader Award for his hard work and dedication at Radio Harrow.
Linked to the Achievement Award Scheme, the Leader Award enables schools and youth organisations to honour the dedication and commitment of staff and volunteers – particularly those who go ‘the extra mile’ to support young people.
The Jack Petchey Foundation realises that lots of the great work, projects and schemes that young people are able to access and participate in, would simply not be possible without the support of their adult leaders. In recognising this the Foundation created the Leader Award – a chance for young people themselves to recognise their leaders, the ones that inspire and support them – and say thank you.
Miles Otway, Volunteers Liaison Manager sought to bring the award to Radio Harrow “I thought it was time that, seeing as we are a brand new organisation, we honour a member of our charity that has been giving their all without much recognition”.
The accolade is awarded to someone that is nominated by their peers. “I received an overwhelming number of nominations for Trevor Larter, the Friday Night Studio Manager” Miles said, “it was clear to see that he has helped to develop and support several younger volunteers, so this award was in honour of all his hard work”.
Trevor was praised as “a brilliant leader” that is “always providing the best support and guidance to the volunteers every week”. One volunteer described Trevor’s support from their first day, “as soon as I joined, I felt welcomed by him, his support has had a great impact on my development as a presenter and more generally has improved my confidence as a volunteer.”
Trevor was so shocked and “speechless” when he was announced as the winner, “I had no idea and I can’t believe that I’ve been chosen.”
Steve Baker, the Harrow Borough Football Club manager, spoke to Paul Billington from the Saturday Sports Show, about his time at the club since his tenure began in late January.
Steve gives a candid account of the challenges he faced taking the helm of a club which was not performing well.
As well as the difficulties, he described the achievements he has made to date – which includes keeping Harrow Borough FC in the Ryman Premier in the “Great Escape”, winning a couple of trophies and nearly matching the clubs best ever start to the season for over 30 years.
He also gave his views on the future for him and Harrow Borough FC.
Hear the full interview here:
Interview: Steve Baker – Harrow Borough FC by Radio Harrow on Mixcloud
The Radio Harrow Sports Show airs every Saturday at 2pm.
Harrow Metropolitan Police officer Stewart Hyde joined Gary Walker on the Radio Harrow Breakfast show to talk about the Autumn Nights initiative which helps to keep people safe in the darker months.
As the days get shorter and darker, there is an increased chance of burglaries and crime.
The Metropolitan Police use the catchphrase “Clocks, Locks and Lights” to remember how to keep homes safe when the clocks go back by keeping everything locked/secure and using lights to deceive burglars.
He offered lots of tips and advice on crime prevention on all things from different ways to keep home’s safe to preventing identity fraud.
Listen back to his top tips below and find out more about the Autumn Nights initiative.
On the 2nd October 2015 Radio Harrow won a £1500 Crystal Award from the Jack Petchey Foundation.
Trustee Keith Chilvers represented the charity at the award ceremony. He describes the momentous evening where he picked up the award.
“To be invited to any awards ceremony is good but to be specially selected from an elite group of 150 is very special.
The Jack Petchey Foundation Bronze Awards Scheme is something that I introduced to Radio Northwick Park (RNP) 7 years ago when I was Treasurer at the charity and it’s something that I’m very proud that Radio Harrow has taken on since the charities merged. The scheme recognises the achievement of our young volunteers and has also helped us raise £6,000 since we started.
On the night we had to head “up West” (to be honest it was actually East) to City Hall, home of the Mayor of London. The event was held in the prestigious London Living Room at the top of City Hall.
We were greeted with a brilliant chamber orchestra in the room, handed a glass of champagne and given a warm welcome from reps from the Jack Petchey charity. We mingled for a while and then popped out on the balcony to admire the view – we could see the whole of EC1 from Tower Bridge to Canary Warf and back to the Shard.
As the awards began the CEO of the foundation was telling us why we had all been selected. We were in the room because out of all of the groups that run the scheme we had made it into the top 150 organisations. As well as being invited to the event we also received a cheque for £1,500.
The foundation gave away £225,000 on the evening to groups based in London and Essex. Since the scheme’s inception it has given away 100 million pounds to youth projects.
Once the formalities were done it was then out chance to meet others participating groups. We met a rock music group and a steel band from Harlow, a scout group from Essex and my great friend Kelly Oyebola who runs a basketball club in Barnet.
Myself, Kelly and his son Joshua couldn’t help jumping on the stage for an unofficial picture before it was time for the official “Harrow” group photo. Along with us there was the Brilliant Ignite Trust and Harrow St Mary’s Cricket club who we actually do commentary from in the summer sports show.
Up on the balcony we all line up, hold a sign up saying that Harrow groups have been awarded £4,500 and the picture is taken with a beautifully lit up tower Bridge in the background. It was a great night and an honour to be a part of.”
The founder, Jack Petchey left school aged 13 with no qualifications yet went on to become a multi-millionaire. His driving ambition has been to inspire and motivate young people and give them recognition for their achievements.
Jack Petchey CBE said “I am proud of all the programmes we’ve been involved in and every single young person who has participated. We aim to help young people believe that ‘If I think I can, I can’, so that whatever their background, they will achieve, they will make positive contributions to society, and they will be satisfied in their lives. I am so committed to this that aged 90 I still come to the office every day. It is why we have given £100m to realise this.
The Jack Petchey Crystal Awards recognise some of the amazing organisations like Radio Harrow that support young people and share our vision.”
Gary Walker was joined by Harish Chavda, a Laughter Yoga instructor on the Radio Harrow Breakfast Show.
Harish prides himself on making people laugh; he explained all about the different types of laughter and its many benefits.
He runs the Harrow laughter club where he uses laughter as a therapy. He describes how his therapies have helped cancer patients and people suffering from mental illnesses.
Harish led Gary through live warm-up exercises designed to relax the body. He then began laughter yoga demonstrations which listeners were encouraged to join in with, these included “laughter mantras” and “laughing for no reason”.
Listen back to the full interview and demonstrations below:
On Friday 25th September, Radio Harrow hosted a special Macmillan Coffee Morning show from 7am to noon.
Broadcasting live from the Macmillan offices near the main entrance of Northwick Park Hospital, the show featured several interviews with guests throughout the morning including the Mayor of Harrow.
Coffee and cake was on sale at the Macmillan stand at the hospital and people were invited to come along to get their morning treats and donate.
Gary Walker hosted the show and invited several guests on including Mary Finn, the manager of the Macmillan Centre at Northwick Park Hospital who spoke about their services, and Radio Harrow Trustee Keith Chilvers who came on to speak about the support he has personally received from Macmillan.
Aravinda Indrasinghe, the manager of DHL who were sponsoring and matching all contributions made at the event also joined Gary in the studio alongside local musicians H-BOSS, Gaz Reynolds and Ruhi Rajani.
The show raised awareness of Macmillan Cancer Support and the fantastic work they do to help people facing cancer.
The Macmillan Coffee morning is the World’s Largest Coffee Morning as people all across the UK are invited to get together for a coffee and donate the cost of the cuppa to the charity.
Last year they raised over twenty-five million pounds for the cause and the whole event is a fantastic way to raise awareness and funds for the charity.
Listen to Gary’s interview with Aravinda Indrasinghe, the Manager of DHL about their fundraising activities ahead of the coffee morning.
The Radio Harrow team were out in full force at the Pinner Village Show.
Volunteer Claire Knight led the charge for Radio Harrow joined by other members Brian, Malcolm, Vic, John, Durshant, Charles and Steve who were all introducing the variety of entertainers and keeping everyone informed throughout the day.
Longstanding member of the charity Charles Biggie even managed to become a stand-in judge for the annual dog show.
The Pinner Village Show is held annually in the Memorial Park, Chapel Lane, Pinner. The Show was started in the late 1980s by Pinner Round Table and has been run by the Rotary Club of Pinner since 2005.
It’s a family friendly event which boasts over 50 stalls with everything from refreshments and local vendors to charities and entertainers and attracts around 2,500 attendees.
The Show also provides an opportunity for local charities and organisations to promote themselves to the local community.
This year the event was opened by Nick Hurd (MP for Ruislip) and the line-up of entertainment included morris dancers, a dog show, the Harrow Concert Band and the Glen Trew Pipe Band.
Take a look at our pictures from the day.
To coincide with the launch of the station’s new Instagram account, for 60 days from the 2nd July to the 31st August, we posted a picture a day that captures summertime in and around Harrow.
It’s a campaign that branched out across all three of Radio Harrow’s social media accounts, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram using the hashtag #RH60DaysofSummer
Everyone could get involved and send in their pictures from in and around Harrow.
Take a look at the amazing beauty captured by the community in the local area in our gallery.
Harrow’s annual Cancer Research UK’s Relay for Life takes place on the 5th September from 12.30pm.
The relay is made up of teams of 8 to 15 people who will each take turns to go round the track at Bannister Sports Centre throughout 21 hours.
Each team fundraises to help beat cancer with all proceeds going towards Cancer Research UK.
At the ground helping the teams round throughout the day and night, there is plenty of music and entertainment. Nick Saalfeld who helps to organise the event joined Gary Walker during the Breakfast Show to discuss this year’s big plans.
The Relay for Life in Harrow is aiming to raise £53,000 this year and you can still register to take part and/or donate to the cause.
Find out more about the event and listen to the full interview with Nick.
On the 5th September a brand new youth support group launches in Harrow.
Called Breakthrough, the group is designed to provide support for young people that face cultural difficulties when they arrive in the UK.
Pratheepan (Theepan) Thambipillai is leading the new project and it is something that is very close to his heart.
Theepan and his family fled civil war in Sri Lanka and moved to the UK in 1999 when he was aged 15. He spoke to Gary Walker on the Breakfast Show about his own personal struggles and hardships he experienced when arriving in the UK.
Many of the issues he faced stemmed from language barriers, lack of cultural understanding and not knowing where to go for help.
As well as his own personal experiences, Theepan described the extent of the issues through some case studies who had suffered abuse and neglect from not being able to communicate easily.
The project is aimed at focusing on raising awareness of a number issues (such as sexual abuse) which are often swept under the carpet, mainly within ethnic minorities, due to cultural and language differences. Breakthrough will provide support by bridging young adults with appropriate specialists to help support them through any difficulties.
The launch event will take place on the 5th September at Pinner Village Hall, Chapel Lane, Pinner, HA5 1AA. The event will feature presentations and a variety of arts performances. Tickets are free but you need to register your interest here.
Listen to the full interview with Theepan below, and find out more about Breakthrough from their Facebook page.
On Saturday morning the Radio Harrow studio was filled with bright vibes as Joseph Doran brought beautiful live acoustic music to the Breakfast Show.
Armed with a guitar and a loop pedal, the local singer-songwriter performed a mix of Ed Sheeran covers and originals.
Joseph had wowed the crowds at the Harrow Town Summer Festival, but has suprisingly only been playing guitar for 2-and-a-half years as actually started out in music through learning the violin.
He showed listeners how his loop pedals work and spoke about his influences, his love of Star Wars and upcoming gigs which include the Macmillan Coffee morning on September 25th.
© Radio Harrow 2024
Registered charity number 1161203
Website designed by Blank Productions
Listen Live
Facebook
Twitter
