SINGING starlet Zoe Birkett returned to her home town today and became the first recipient of an award to mark the positive efforts of young people.

The 16-year-old, from Darlington, visited The Northern Echo's offices in Priestgate and was awarded a certificate as a nominee in the Positive Young People Awards 2002.

While the rest of the nominees will receive their awards at a formal ceremony at Darlington Civic Theatre on March 25, Zoe is unable to attend because of the upcoming Pop Idol tour.

After being presented with the certificate by Editor Peter Barron, Zoe thanked people in the region for their support during the show.

And she thanked The Northern Echo for its We're Backing Zoe campaign, which encouraged people across the region to vote for the Carmel RC Technology College student.

But she added she is very unlikely to return to college where she is studying three 'A' levels - although she is keeping the option of continuing her education open.

First, though, she will hold talks with a variety of record company bosses who have made offers of contracts.

"It all depends what the offers involve," she said.

"I probably won't be going back to college, but I'm just going to have to see what's most important. I need my education to fall back on."

A flood of entries in the closing days of the nomination period looks set to make the Positive Young People Awards 2002 a glowing tribute to the efforts of young people. Zoe received multiple nominations for the way she has brought the town to the public attention.

And organisers are hoping hundreds of people will turn up at the Civic Theatre to help celebrate the nominees and their achievements, whether these are on a personal or community level.

The original £2.50 ticket price for entry to the event has been dropped to make the evening open to everybody.

The event is being run by the PS2K peer support team, Darlington Partnership and Darlington Borough Council's community education department in conjunction with The Northern Echo.

Rumana Ramzan, general manager of the Darlington Partnership, said: "This is a fantastic opportunity to celebrate the achievements of young people in Darlington and we should do more of it.

"It's really encouraging to see such a variety of nominations and entries and I hope that this event will go on in the future to encourage more young people to participate."

Details about tickets for the show are available from the borough council's community education

Read more information about Zoe please visitRevolution.