Moorlands MP, Karen Bradley is encouraging local residents to vote for the 2018 Staffordshire Moorlands Volunteer of the Year Award.
Karen said,
“As your MP it is always an honour and a privilege to be invited to visit some of the many charities and community groups here in Staffordshire Moorlands. Many of these exist solely because of the generosity of their volunteers who give up their time selflessly to help others.
I have personally met so many amazing volunteers and this is a fantastic opportunity for us to show our appreciation for what is being done in Staffordshire Moorlands every day.”
Support Staffordshire Press Release
Earlier this year, Support Staffordshire asked you to put forward your local Volunteer Super Heroes so they can be nominated for this year's awards…
From over 40 nominations a panel of independent judges has selected the four finalists.
Derek Hilyer is in his 10th year of service to The Beatrice Charity committee - Secretary since 2008, combining this with Chairman since 2011. The narrow boat Beatrice serves children with additional (special) educational needs from schools in North Staffordshire. Out-of-term it is used by groups whose members may benefit from its disabled facilities. Fund-raising trips are also arranged for community groups. In addition to his committee responsibilities, Derek serves as a member of the crew of The Beatrice, either as a skipper or as a volunteer assisting the skipper.
A particular feature of Derek’s work has been his success in bidding for funds from charitable trusts and partnerships. Over the years he has secured £27,332 towards the running costs of the charity (schools are not charged for their trips) and, in the past four years, for the boat’s major refurbishment.
In addition to his work with The Beatrice, Derek is:
- Secretary to the Friends of Birch Gardens which this year is being designated a Centenary Field to commemorate the end of the First World War;
- A governor for the Partnership of Springfield School and the Meadows School
- A member of the panel for the South West Peak Community Grants Scheme, having previously undertaken the same role for the Churnet Valley Living Landscape Partnership.
Gavin Bateman is a qualified football coach who manages Leek Town under 13s. He organises all their league games and provides midweek coaching for that team.
He is Chairman of Leek Town Juniors.
Gavin arranges visits to St George’s Park and Stoke City for the children to provide them with coaching at these venues and an insight into football at a professional level. He provides coaching for Junior Blues – under 7 children who are too young to play for a team – and regularly gets over 30 children taking part every week. Gavin has set up Leek Town Wildcats – an initiative sponsored by the FA to provide young girls with an opportunity to play football. This is a new initiative which brought in 28 new girls on the first week and he is providing coaching for them now on a weekly basis. Gavin commits a least five days/evenings every week to helping children to get into football and enjoy the experience.
James Bourne is a dedicated volunteer for Biddulph Youth and Community Zone and the whole of Biddulph local community.
James works two nights a week at Biddulph Youth and Community Zone running projects for young people. On Mondays he delivers a fitness session for up to 20 young people who would otherwise not take part in this kind of exercise due to low self- confidence or the cost of using a local gym. This project is free and gives the young people the opportunity to get fit and have fun. James is so welcoming and supportive to the young people and he is an amazing role model.
On a Friday night, James works at the local youth club. He works with over 80 young people helping to deliver positive activities for the young people of Biddulph between the ages of 9 to 19. Regardless of whatever James is doing with the young people, he will ensure its fun and does not exclude anyone no matter what their ability is James leaves a lasting impression on every young person he works with he really is an extraordinary, kind and caring man.
As well as everything James does for the Community Zone, he also does other voluntary work such as helping to run a local church youth group that includes Messy Play for younger children. James is also the man behind the amazing event that happens once a year in Biddulph called the Troll Run. This is a mud run that raises money for local charities. This year he has raised over £2000 for local charities. He encourages all the local community to participate in this event and this year had over 200 people taking part from the young to the old. On the days running up to the run James was working from 6 in the morning to 8pm at night setting up all the run and building all the obstacles.
John Clarke is the one person in the village of Draycott who will always put himself forward to volunteer. Without seeking recognition or praise, he has managed both large and small projects which have changed the way our village is for the better. After being an assistant to the organiser of the Draycott Summer Fayre, John took over as the main organiser five years ago. The Fayre raises anything up to £8000 each year for reapirs at the 13th century village church. John loves the old church, and undertook the dangerous job of ensuring the renovation of the church’s bells, some of which date back to the 16th century. He also undertook, with another resident, a project to install pathway lighting in the old churchyard. This project (and the bells project) showed he does more than just hands-on stuff - he is prepared to do all the very much harder and lengthy work of dealing with the bureaucratic process too.
The parish council rely on John too (though he is not a councillor) – he has recently led the repairs of Draycott’s bus shelters and village noticeboards, among other tasks.
Without John, very little would happen in the village.
For your opportunity to vote go to www.supportstaffordshire.org.uk/your-local-branch/staffordshire-moorlands or telephone 01538 381356 before 5pm Friday 1st June 2018.