A FLAGSHIP awards ceremony and exhibition celebrating talented young people in Inverclyde is taking place in the Beacon Arts Centre.

Organisers Gourock Rotary Club's 2024 competition for young musicians, photographers and artists once again recognises their outstanding achievements.

On the night the Rotary Club will also announce the winner of their coveted Dr Sadhu Gupta Young Citizen of the Year prize.

Dr Sadhu Gupta and his wide Dr Pushpa Gupta, with local boxer Rhys McCole, who is helping to promote this year's awards. (Image: George Munro) Award-winning local boxer Rhys McCole is fronting the campaign and spoke to the Tele last month about the importance of recognising the work done by the area's young people.

Thanks to vital funding from the Inverclyde Windfarm Trust, the event will take place in the Beacon, followed by an  exhibition showcasing all the outstanding entries.

The Dr Sadhu Gupta Memorial Prize is named in honour of a retired eye surgeon from Inverclyde.

Gourock Rotary organiser Norman Pettigrew said: "The Windfarm Trust grant will ensure that we can adequately recognise the tremendous skills and the dedication of our young people from Inverclyde through their music, art, photography and their giving back to their community in which they live and work."

Dr Gupta, who lives in Kilmacolm, has devoted his life to helping gift sight to people in the poorest countries in the world.

The  Delhi-born eye specialist juggled his work in Inverclyde with charity work in clinics in places such as Nepal and Ethiopia.

His work is internationally recognised, with a scholarship in his name in the Royal College of London and also a clinic named after him in Delhi.

Thanks to a £1,000 grant from the Windfarm Trust, the Rotary Club has been able to hold the awards ceremony in the Beacon and to set up an accompanying exhibition.

The Beacon Arts Centre will host the awards ceremony on November 21. (Image: George Munro)

The first winner of the Gourock Rotary Young Citizen of the Year prize was cancer charity campaigner Molly Cuddihy in 2022, with Rhys following in Molly's footsteps the following year.

This year, the Young Musician Competition and the Youth Award Ceremony will take place on November 21 at 6pm with the announcement of the winner of the Sadhu Gupta Young Citizen award.

Tickets for the awards, free of charge, are available through the Beacon Box Office, for the awards which were open to all young people from Inverclyde, under the age of 25.

All the entries for the art and photography competitions will be on public display in the Beacon Cafe from Wednesday November 20 to Friday November 29.