Three outstanding voluntary groups receive a Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service

It has today been announced that the following volunteer led groups have been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK – the MBE for volunteer groups:

Bay Search and Rescue
Fellrunner Village Bus
Westmorland County Agricultural Society

Bay Search and Rescue delivers a volunteer all-terrain and amphibious search and rescue service in Morecambe Bay. The group’s skills and mobility also address environmental challenges such as flooding, severe winter weather and wild-fires. Plus, they are also able to effect large animal and marine mammal rescue.

Fellrunner Village Bus delivers an essential service to its local community. For over 40 years it has connected the many small villages and isolated hamlets in Eden District to the market town of Penrith and city of Carlisle.

Westmorland County Agricultural Society provides community-led agricultural events and educational programmes promoting food, farming and the environment. Having been established in 1799, it is hugely emblematic of Cumbria’s rural heritage and identity, but at the same time its volunteer-led and volunteer-delivered activities are outstandingly relevant and supportive to the needs of today’s agricultural and rural industry community.

241 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups have this year received the prestigious award. The number of nominations remains high year on year, showing that the voluntary sector is thriving and full of innovative ideas to make life better for those around them.

The winning organisations will receive a certificate signed by HM The Queen and a domed glass crystal which will be presented by HM Lord-Lieutenant of Cumbria, Mrs Claire Hensman. Furthermore, two volunteers from each group will attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace in May 2022 (depending on restrictions at the time), along with other recipients of this year’s Award.

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service is an annual award made to recognise and reward the most exceptional and innovative groups who provide voluntary led activities carried out by local groups in the community. It is a highly competitive and prestigious award and only about half of the nominations can expect to win. The award was announced in 2002 as part of the celebrations for The Queen’s Golden Jubilee, and was first known as The Queen’s Golden Jubilee Award.

Any group of two or more people doing outstanding volunteering work can be nominated for the award. Most importantly the group must be volunteer led and the majority of the group must be volunteers; more than half the volunteers must have the right to live in the UK. The groups should also have been running for three years or more to be eligible.

To be nominated they should do work that:

• provides a service and meets a need for people living in the local community
• is supported, recognised and respected by the local community and the people who benefit from it
• is run locally

For further details about the award and how to nominate visit – https://www.gov.uk/queens-award-for-voluntary-service/overview

Her Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Cumbria, Mrs Claire Hensman said:

“The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service is the highest accolade for any voluntary organisation and I am thrilled that some of our organisations in Cumbria have achieved national recognition. I would like to thank our winning organisations for their tireless work and commitment to the communities they serve. I do congratulate them. They are all thoroughly deserving of this award. Volunteers are the glue that hold our communities together.”

“There are many more voluntary groups across Cumbria doing excellent, innovative work enhancing the lives and experiences of many people in their local communities. Many have stepped up to the current Covid-19 challenge in very difficult circumstances and they have all our admiration and gratitude. I hope that this will prompt more nominations for the next year’s round of awards. If you know of an exceptional voluntary group who meets the above criteria then please nominate them by 5pm on 15 September 2021 for them to be considered for the 2022 Queens Award for Voluntary Service.”