For the 12th consecutive year, Qala council has just awarded the Gieh il-Lokalità - this year it went to Richard Bates, Bernard Curmi, and Charles Mifsud.

Qala mayor Paul Buttigieg encouraged Qala's young people to emulate the three award recipients and urged them to take part in sports activities and to use sport as a character-building tool.

Mr Buttigieg appealed for more volunteers to work in committees, groups, and with the elderly.

Mr Bates has been living in Qala for several years. He showed heroism sea, when he saved two people from drowning at Mgarr harbour on October 14 last year. When he realised that a car had fallen into the sea, without hesitation he jumped in and saved an old man and his daughter in a matter of minutes.

Bernard Curmi, who loves all there is to do with Qala, is always ready to do anything to promote the success and name of the village. He is also a football and feast enthusiast; he was a player of Qala's St Jospeh FC and was one of the pioneers of the Qala football team and continued to support the team even after he had stopped playing football.

Mr Curmi's love for the feasts of the Immaculate Conception and St Joseph is such that on the morrow of the feasts he is already thinking of how the next year's feasts could be even better.

Charles Mifsud (il-Majs) is known for his devotion to sports, especially football, in Gozo. He kept fair play first and foremost and took training very seriously. Mr Mifsud would considered his opponents as friends. It is this sporting spirit that kept him playing football till he was 52.

This caused foreign journalists to take an interest in him and write an article about him in the Italian sports magazine Il Guerin Sportivo which mentioned how Mr Mifsud had remained active in sports even at his age.

Apart from sports, Mr Mifsud also does voluntary work with the elderly of Qala and this convinced the Qala council that he was a good candidate for the Gieh il-Qala award.