Daniel Tag
Daniel Tagg has been at the forefront of efforts to bring the community together through the Townstal Community Partnership for the past few years.
A friendly and approachable man, as chairman he has helped to bring a number of initiatives to the area which have helped its community spirit, prosperity and increased people’s chances of getting help in difficult situations.
He has been doing all this, with no expectation of reward or recognition – but there were others who felt he deserved some.
Sainsbury’s like to reward those who work for the company – or ‘colleagues’ – if they are doing work for their community. They have held a number of competitions and awards to recognize the most community-minded ‘colleagues’ around the country.
Daniel was nominated for the latest of these - the How Do You Care? Awards – by his manager Pete Basnett and Sue O’Leary at the store.
Nearly 10,000 colleagues were put forward nationwide for the award. Only 18 of those were considered worthy enough to be recognized for the work they had done.
Daniel was one of those 18.
“It was amazing to be nominated at all,” said Daniel. “I was so touched that my colleagues thought I should be nominated – but to be one of the winners was just mind-blowing. It was a mystery what we had won as well, which was very exciting.”
Daniel was put up in a posh London hotel and sent for lunch at the revered Oxo Tower Restaurant.
But then something remarkable happened.
‘A black Mercedes pulled up and whisked us off to a secret location somewhere in London,” said Daniel. “We didn’t know what was going on – then out walks David Beckham! I couldn’t believe it!”
David Beckham works with Sainsbury’s to promote their community and charity initiatives and had been brought along as a thrilling ‘thank you’ to the winners of the competition – and had cleared the whole afternoon to spend with them.
Daniel was thoroughly impressed by the man who is fast becoming a living legend.
“He was really nice,” enthused Daniel. “He chatted away to us and asked lots of questions about what we do. He was sitting on the sofa, talking about his kids, how he doesn’t want to be a manager, who his favourite players are, anything really. He came across as a very genuine very nice guy. He told us he gets up at 5am on a Saturday morning to watch premiership football when he’s in LA. I was calling him ‘Mate’ and I even asked him never to call football ‘Soccer’ no matter how long he spends in America! He just laughed and said it wouldn’t be a problem. It was such a great day, I was totally honoured to meet him.”
Daniel is not resting on his laurels with his Townstal Community Partnership team despite the recognition.
“We are doing really great,” he said. “We now seem to be an established part of the community and people believe we can achieve what we set out to do – because we have done so in the past.
“We are especially proud of the Wednesday ‘Hub’ we have created at the Townstal Community Hall. Every Wednesday we have the Credit Union, the Job Club, the Citizens Advice Bureau, the Food bank and once a month we also have the three housing associations – Guinness, Tor and Sanctuary - all holding their benefits surgeries here too. We are very pleased to have the CAB Booth in the hall – which is a computer screen that allows you to access CAB services at any time when the Townstal Community Hall is open.
“We have also recently organised two community celebrations for the DIamond Jubilee: a street party and the lighting of a special Beacon – which was sponsored by Sainsbury’s.”
There was one aspect of the TCP’s work which really grabbed David Beckham’s imagination: their youth club.
“He asked about the Youth Club a lot,” said Daniel. “I was very proud to tell him that we now have up to 50 kids coming along each week – they take responsibility for decisions and work together so well – it’s a really positive group. I can’t take the credit for all these things though – Julie Deane is the brains behind it all – I’m just the mouth!”
First Published July 2012 By The Dart