Helen Snell was awarded the Bruce Taylor Memorial Trophy at the Hout Bay Neighbourhood Watch annual general meeting last week.
The award is presented to a person who is making a difference in the community and who has received the most votes from fellow members.
Bruce Taylor was an active member of Overkloof Watch who died in a motorbike accident in 2007.
Watch secretary Meryl Butt said Ms Snell was selected from a list of ten and “won by a long shot”.
Ms Snell has been chair of the Scott Estate and Baviaanskloof Community Improvement District (SEBCID) since its establishment in July 2020 and was an original member of the steering committee which came together in March 2018 to work towards founding the CID.
She took over from the original chairperson when he resigned four months after the area became a city improvement district (CID), where residents pay fees through the City’s rates billing system for top-up municipal services.
Ms Snell said she had stepped in to “salvage” the CID after the lengthy process to be established with the City of Cape Town. Ms Snell said it had taken up far more time than she had anticipated.
Speaking at her home on the hillside above Hout Bay, Ms Snell said that apart from her job of being a mother to a 7-year-old daughter, one dog, four cats and a tortoise, she spent much time on SEBCID matters.
Ms Snell said many hours had been spent deciding how many cameras the area needed, where to place them and how to power them during load shedding. The committee of seven had also motivated for stop signs and mirrors where needed.
First aid training; a reading programme at the Denis Goldberg House of Hope; sinks fitted at Sentinel Primary School; funding for women who have a clean-up campaign in Imizamo Yethu; and sponsorship for a child at an educational programme were just of the outreach projects the CID had been involved in, she said.
“It’s a busy CID with an engaged community. The committee is very collegiate, no disputes, with many members there since the beginning. They all work hard, but we knew that going in. It’s super seeing a safer area and tangible things happening in the environment and our many green areas.”
The award will be presented to her later this month. In second place was Lorenzo Thomas and sharing third position were Fareed Hoosen and Doreen Malan.
For further information, contact helen.SEBCID@gmail.com
