Okehampton’s Round Table put on a splendid awards ceremony at the London Inn last Saturday (January 28) to celebrate the community work done by many local groups over the Christmas period.

The community organisation, open to all men between the ages of 18 and 45, presented awards to 24 of Okehampton’s local groups and businesses to thank them for their sponsorship and good work helping with the Round Table’s annual Santa sleigh drive-by.

Santa’s helpers received cheques with donations for their organisations and included Okehampton Fire Station, Team Chaos Muay Thai and Fitness Club, the Courtney Players and Hatherleigh Bell Ringers, while the Santa sleigh’s sponsors included Redrow Homes, Forthglade Foods, Waitrose and Partners and Cladco Profiles.

Round Table chairman, Chris Brown-Martin, said: ‘Thank you to everybody who supported and helped us. The teams and their families put in so much effort.’

He also added a particular thank you to 3 East Street, the Okehampton Community Kitchen premises, for the toys, books and sweets it provided for the Round Table’s Santa to deliver to those children otherwise unlikely to receive presents this year.

The Okehampton District Round Table’s sleigh drive-by is an annual Christmas event which sees Santa and his elves travel across the local area in a sleigh. It is a much-enjoyed part of Okehampton’s Christmas celebrations.

This year the money raised as part of the Christmas event was donated to 3 East Street and the Okehampton Community Kitchen.