Street & Paul Beadle, Station Manager of Birmingham International Station Virgin Trains are supporting the Birmingham Sports Awards again this year, choosing to sponsor the Community Award. We took some time to explore the reasoning behind their decision and what impact they think the Awards will have on the region.

Virgin Trains kindly gave us access to two members of their management, to explain the company’s involvement.

Paul Beadle, Station Manager of Birmingham International Station, told us more. “We’re proud of the communities we serve in the West Midlands and the Birmingham Sports Awards is a great opportunity to support our local community and engage with both our customers and staff to promote being healthy and living a healthier lifestyle as well as recognising the talent, both professional and amateur, in the Midlands. We sponsored the awards last year and were blown away by the sheer talent in the region.”

Paul went on to outline Virgin Trains’ thinking when they elected to support the Community Award ahead of one of the other categories, saying “Virgin Trains are a Midlands based company with our Head Office in Birmingham. We actively promote healthy living within our teams and as the Official Travel Partner of the BUPA Great Run and Swim Series we actively encourage our staff to enter.“

“We are all looking forward to the Great Birmingham Run in October too. We take our responsibility of serving Birmingham seriously and we’re delighted to be involved with the awards again this year, building closers links within the community.”

We also spoke to Zoe Hodgins, Retail & Contracts Manager at Birmingham New Street, who stressed the importance of celebrating our successes. She remarked, “The awards are a brilliant way of showcasing the talent in the West Midlands, highlighting what can be achieved when you set your mind to it.“

“Given the amount of training and dedication that goes into sport locally, it is important people get the recognition they deserve. Plus the awards are a great way of encourage others to get involved. It is so important we recognise our current and future sporting heroes.”

Zoe also sees real parallels between sporting endeavour and the world of business, explaining,

“Sport and business have a lot in common. Both require passion and drive to succeed at every level and that is only achieved through hard-work, determination and staying focused on your goals. That ensures you get results and realise your dreams.”