ICAEW honours and rewards for accountants who make everybody count.

The winners of the Everybody Counts awards, run by the ICAEW and Accountancy Age, were announced last week at the institute’s annual dinner in London. Presented by Sainsbury’s group chief executive and chairman of Business in the Community Sir Peter Davis, the awards are designed to celebrate – and encourage – community work carried out by chartered accountants in England and Wales. Winners of the scheme were selected by a panel of judges that included institute president Graham Ward, Accountancy Age editor Damian Wild and Everybody Counts project manager Alison Portlock. Winners were picked in five categories on the basis of the time, level of involvement and commitment they devoted to a project, as well as the difference the work has made. Each of the charities and voluntary groups the winners have been working with were awarded #2,000. The award winners of each category were: Member in Practice: Delia Butler from KPMG in Manchester, for voluntary work with the Home Farm Trust, a national charity providing residential and day care services to adults with learning difficulties. Member in Business: Christopher Underwood from the Automobile Association in Basingstoke, for his voluntary role as treasurer of the Jubilee Sailing Trust, a national charity that owns and operates the world’s only tall ships, purpose built for crews of able bodied and physically disabled people. Member of a Small Practice: Ron Enticott, sole practitioner from Airde Accountancy in Surrey, for voluntary work with a variety of schools and charities. Younger Member: Victoria Fryer from Naylor Wintersgill in Bradford, for organising fundraising events in aid of Multiple Sclerosis research. Retired Member: Charles Sherwood from Surrey, for financial work carried out on a voluntary basis for a horticultural therapy unit for the elderly, disabled and those with learning difficulties. Ward told guests at the dinner: ‘Chartered accountants across the country have a long tradition of donating their time and expertise to many charities and projects. ‘The institute’s Everybody Counts initiative, launched in autumn 1999, was envisaged as a means to support and highlight more widely many of those excellent projects and the voluntary work being undertaken by chartered accountants.’ Sir Peter, who also spoke at the dinner, said: ‘Chartered accountants have long played a role in this by offering their professional ‘skills’ to community groups. Skills without which many a great idea generated by people working voluntarily to improve their communities would never get off the ground.’ Accountancy Age editor Damian Wild said: ‘We are delighted to support this valuable initiative. The awards scheme has proved to be so successful that it is to become an annual event and we are very pleased to continue our association with Everybody Counts in future years.’ Details of the award winners’ projects and other community work undertaken by accountants can be found at www.accountancyage.com/News/1112285 For more information about how to get involved in the Everybody Counts initiative go to www.everybodycounts.co.uk. To find out more information about Business in the Community’s national network of professional firms who offer free support to voluntary organisations, ProHelp, go to www.prohelp.org.uk.