WOW! The Steve Franks Industry Champion of the Year Award 2021

Representing Steve and his life’s work is an honour for myself and the family. Recently, we had this opportunity and I’d like to share how proud and grateful we are for this experience.

The 14th Annual What’s On 4 Kids Activities Awards with Morton Michel took place on the evening of October 8. Steve was a regular VIP guest at this event – speaking last year alongside Baroness D’Souza on the ‘Children First’ campaign. He very much enjoyed these national awards, which celebrate and showcase this important industry but, this year however, the evening also offered the opportunity to reflect on the huge challenges 2020 had brought to our doors. The event which was held live and online for the 1st time, offered a powerful and dynamic ceremony with Steve, once again, central to proceedings.

The shock of losing Steve hit the children’s activities industry very hard and his loss continues to resonate. It was hugely fitting therefore that the organisers, after discussion with our family took the decision to rename one of the most coveted awards in memory of Steve and this was announced on the night.

 From 2021, at the 15th National What’s On 4 Kids Activities Awards, the ‘Steve Franks Industry Champion of the Year Award’ will be presented for the 1st time, and we as a family, plan to be there to congratulate the winner! Through this, Steve’s legacy of commitment, passion, excellence, and drive will live on.

As part of the proceedings Tom, our son, bravely took to the online platform to make a tender and compelling tribute to his dad who he described as ‘the strongest, kindest, funniest, most educated love of our lives’, revealing that ‘we will always be a family of four’. The emotion would have been felt in homes throughout the UK as the impact of Tom’s words and the love and huge respect for Steve became evident from so many event guests via the online ‘chat’.

“amazing idea to honour an amazing man”,

“he is a huge inspiration to us all”,

“a huge loss to our industry. A truly inspirational man”,

“god bless -his legacy lives on”,

“Steve will be in our hearts FOREVER” .

– is just a very small selection.

Tom’s courage in making this address live was awe-inspiring – chip off the old block – and event guests paid tribute to Tom too

“Well done Tom, lovely tribute to your dad. He would be so proud of you” and 

"Lovely words Tom. Such a wonderful way to remember your father.” 

 The event closed with a further announcement that Steve would also take pride of place in the 'Children's Activities Hall of Fame' alongside a select group of other exceptional industry leaders. Turns out this was one of Steve’s ideas that the organisers were honoured and delighted to bring to life. We know how much these accolades would mean to him.

 This was a highly emotional but hugely positive evening and we are so grateful to the team at What’s On 4 Kids for consulting with us and involving us as a family every step of the way. This was not only a very special event but the start of a significant connection for us all and another way that Steve’s name will live on.

 Please find here our words for the Incredible Awards Evening:-

Tonight, I address you on behalf of myself, my mother Alison, my sister Abby and of course the late, great father of mine Steven Christopher Franks. Firstly I would like to begin by thanking you for giving us this wonderful opportunity by leading a tribute to this incredible man of ours.

 Steve Franks is our rock, and our saviour, we thought he was invincible, we wanted him to be invincible, we thought he would live for ever, we wanted him to live for ever. He was our best friend, our go to person, always there to help the three of us when we needed it most. We thought he was immortal, and emperor made of granite. He was the strongest, kindest, funniest, most educated love of our lives, and we will always be a family of four.

 Steve loved life, he was dedicated, passionate, supportive, and determined to get the job done, he often said ‘enough was never enough’. He was a mentor to many, sitting on numerous boards playing major roles, while also a keen believer in helping young starter business grow and taste similar success to what he endeavoured to find. The art to doing so is to think big, my father never gave up, he was a driver, a perfectionist and would obsess over getting the small tasks completed to an equally high standard as those bigger one. He was indeed unique, from his attire, to his laugh or his proud cultural heritage, one in which I am honoured to carry in his name. He strove for the highest of standards across all sectors to improve the experiences for babies, children and young people, no one in the industry held a candle to him, no one came close. He was like no other human, husband or father we have ever known. He is our hero. He is our world.

One thing we do know is that Steve became extremely involved in the creation of the CAA and backed the What’s on 4 Kids Awards, he was always so supportive and never hesitated to back this organisation to help the entire children’s activities sector, he was an exceptional business leader, it was his thing. After all it is always easy to back something when you believe in its core ethos.

 As a family we clearly remember, when in 2016 he was over the moon to be presented with the first ever Lifetime Achievement Award at the What’s on 4 Kids Activity Awards Ceremony, he came home buzzing, he loved you guys. In addition, after each Ceremony, he could not wait to tell us who he had met and more importantly whose table he was on and how fascinating they were, the same I am certain would have been reciprocated about my father regarding his terrific tails.

 But what does it mean to win an award? what does it mean to strive for excellence? If you google search the term ‘excellence’ the definition states ‘It is the quality of being outstanding or extremely good’

But when that definition is broken down, what does it all mean? Does it mean we need an award to justify excellence, or is the ideology of excellence justified in receiving an award, you can ask yourself that question, for I do not hold the answer? However, what does being successful mean to you, when you strip it all away, what are you holding on to, what does it mean to be successful? Professionally awards can help to define progress and give you that much needed pat on the back for being assiduous, however bare in mind that there are small victories in failure, as to fail means that you have had the courage to attempt something that others have not. I know my father would tell me ‘you always want to be the best’, and if you cannot, then you must ‘strive to be the best you can be, be able to look yourself in the mirror and be proud of the accomplishments of the reflection looking back at you’. Understand that at the end of the day if you can turn to yourself and state you gave it your best shot, then you have won and you are equally victorious and no one, no matter how hard they try, can take that away from you, for it is a tangible object that you must hold onto.

 Steve, like the three of us, would find having the renaming of the Industry Champion Award to the Steve Franks Award absolutely incredible, he’s be telling everyone and singing about it from the roof tops, and if he had told you once he would tell you again just to make sure! this is without doubt, a huge honour and we are humbled you have done this for him, for us, for the future, he is with us this evening, so thank you all from the very bottom of our hearts.

 The three of us are determined his Legacy lives on and by renaming this award you have played a major part in making this happen, carry his torch forward and strive for excellence as he once did.

 I am just going to leave you now with a quote in which was dropped on me not to long after my father passed ‘Life turned to death and asked ‘why do people love you and hate me’ Death quickly replied and stated ‘it is because you are a beautiful lie and I am the painful truth’

 Thank you for your time this evening, myself and my family now look forward to being part of this organisation and all being well, being with you next year.