Bo’s Community Award

The Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames annually recognises outstanding individuals who have given up their time to help others in their communities.

The Mayor’s Community Award 2020 was presented by the Mayor of Kingston, Councillor Margaret Thompson, to Bozena Millerfor outstanding service to the Royal Borough“.

Bo with the Mayor - and her award!
Bo with the Mayor – and her award!

The video of the presentation ceremony

Watch the YouTube video of the citation and the presentation of the award by the Mayor. Read how to play the YouTube video.

The Citation – read by Councillor Olly Wehring

COMMUNITY AWARD
BY
THE WORSHIPFUL THE MAYOR
COUNCILLOR MARGARET THOMPSON
TO
BOZENA MILLER

Friday. 6th March 2020

Madam Mayor, High Steward, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to support the nomination of Bozena Miller for a Mayor’s Community Award.

Bozena Miller – known locally in Norbiton simply as ‘Bo’ – is a celebrity; not only in the eyes of her neighbours, but also to the many commuters using Norbiton station of a morning.

A Croatian national, Bo moved to the UK in 1973, settling in Kingston eight years later. A mother of two, she co-founded and managed the first computer shop in Kingston in the 1980s, ran a nursery in the 1990s, and studied for a maths degree at the turn of the Century.

Today, she is retired, but fills her time by keeping her – and our – patch of Norbiton clean and tidy. Every weekday morning, Bo can be found walking the streets around her home on Gloucester Road, dressed in her trademark high-visibility tabard, collecting litter.

Bo started to notice the rubbish on our streets when she became a self-styled ‘paper girl’ (her words!), collecting the daily free newspaper from the train station and delivering it to many of her neighbours, some of whom are elderly or vulnerable. Today, she combines the two, picking up litter and delivering newspapers.

“Everyone knows me now,” Bo once told me. “The station staff, the commuters, my neighbours.”

“It’s lovely to hear all the ‘good mornings’ from everyone.”

“Suddenly,” she says, “the area is cosier and friendlier.”

And, thanks to Bo, the area is cleaner.

MADAM MAYOR IT GIVES ME GREAT PLEASURE TO PRESENT TO YOU BOZENA MILLER

Bo’s Community Award

video produced by
Alan King
for a truly inspirational lady

background music
‘Kvadrilja (Quadrille)’
taken from the album
‘Croatia: Traditional Music of Today’
released by UNESCO
available from
https://folkways.si.edu/croatia/world/music/album/smithsonian