Ian Blackmore

In honour of our Diamond Jubilee year in 2022, the theme for the evening was sparkles, and our guests rose to the occasion with glamour, glitter, and style!

The main highlight of the event was the crowning of our Alumni Volunteer of the Year Award. This years’ worthy recipient was Ian Blackmore BA (Hons) History 1997.

“What a huge honour to win the Canterbury Christ Church University Alumni Volunteer of the Year Award. Thanks to everyone who voted for me and the judging panel who chose me as the winner. It was great to win it in a room full of so many of my former Students’ Union Sabbatical Officers and so many other alumni volunteers. Very humbling and lovely to have 25 years of voluntary service to the university and SU recognised.

“When I joined Canterbury Christ Church College of Higher Education as it was in 1994, or C4 to the sports teams as it remains to this day, what stood out was this idea of us being one big family. As the institution has grown and evolved it has still maintained that family feel, especially around sport and the SU. We realised that we were not the biggest and didn’t have the facilities of some of our competitors, but we were united and we would work together to make great things happen. This attitude was one adopted by my SU Sabbatical team in 1997/98 where we tried to say yes to everything our fellow students wanted to do – and worked out how to make that happen afterwards!

“It is this thrill of working with young people to make their dreams and aspirations a reality that has kept me involved to this day, be it in organising the annual Old Boys & Old Girls sports weekend, helping and cheering at Varsity, presenting awards at the Sports Federations Dinner, organising SU reunions or in mentoring the new sabbaticals each year.

There truly isn’t much that could stop us if we all, students, staff and alumni of C4, move forward together. Here’s to the next 25 years – C4 ’til I die!”

Ian graduated from CCCU in 1997 and runs his own successful specialist events management business. He is a tireless supporter of CCCU and continues to offer his time, advice and support to both the University and Christ Church Students’ Union (CCSU), where he was Captain and President of Men’s Rugby and Sabbatical Officer – Vice President.

His knowledge on event organisation has been an incredible support as we planned out our big scale Diamond Jubilee events. Plus Ian has continued to support and mentor individual Sabbatical Officers and Leadership Teams with advice and guidance, as well as co-leading the ‘Friends of CCSU’ Sabbatical Officer Alumni Group.