On Wednesday 4th September, BTHA Council member and Head of the BTHA Toy Safety Advisory Service, Jerry Burnie OBE, presented a Golden Teddy award to a very special person, Milton Keynes Council’s Jane Smith.
Jane has retired as a trading standards officer but was presented with this special award in the company of her former colleagues at the Milton Keynes Council offices.
“a genuinely lovely person to deal with, she had always been honest, open to new ideas and very knowledgeable in her field – a true unsung hero and a very worthy winner of a BTHA Golden Teddy award”
It was the first time someone not involved with toys for most of their career has received this award and is extra special in that regard. During Jane’s rather unique and long working life in various roles with retailers and with trading standards, she has, amongst many other things, taken the time to deal considerately with suppliers. She has always given a listening ear to innovative approaches and been instrumental in forging a great Primary Authority partnership with the BTHA itself.
BTHA Golden Teddy Awards are presented to people who have served the industry for more than 15 years and they recognise people with extraordinary talents, and who have gone over and above expectations. Most importantly, recipients are the industry’s genuinely good people who possess a high degree of ‘niceness, honesty and integrity’.
In his award speech Jerry Burnie relayed the view of the proposers that Jane was the perfect person to be honoured with this award and, though she had not only dealt with toys, she had achieved a huge amount in that field. Not only is she “a genuinely lovely person to deal with,” she had always been “honest, open to new ideas and very knowledgeable in her field – a true unsung hero and a very worthy winner of a BTHA Golden Teddy award.”
