Ted Slade was the founding editor of The Poetry Kit n every respect it was his vision and determination that saw the site grow to become one of the most visited poetry related sites in the world.  This was done with the ethos of providing a service for our readers and always putting their needs first when developing the site.  For all his work Ted received no official thanks and no payment, he did it because it was necessary and if he had not done it some others with less integrity might have. 

Ted died suddenly (Memorial Page) and we always felt that we wanted to find a way to honour his memory and so we introduced an award in his name which is given to the unsung heroes who give their time and energies to ensuring the continuance of poetry at the grass roots of our culture.   In 2005 we gave the first TED SLADE AWARD and since then the following people have received it.