Volunteers
The SAA is delighted and very honoured to announce that it has been granted ‘The King’s Award for Voluntary Service (KAVS) for its Educational Volunteers’. This is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK and is equivalent to an MBE. The announcement of this award is made today, the day of the King’s birthday, and the SAA was the only organisation to receive it this year in Suffolk and in the first year of His Majesty’s reign. A further 261 organisations across the UK and Channel Islands have also received the award.
The SAA was established in 1831 and delivers educational events through the year some at Trinity Park for example, The School Farm and Country Fair, the county Show and others off site on Farms. Hundreds of volunteers give up huge amounts of their time to support the organisation. This award will give them all, both present and past, a huge thrill in recognising their collective effort.
The award is made in perpetuity and rightly all our volunteers, both past and present, delivering our educational events, should individually and collectively feel very proud of this recognition.
Bill Baker, our Chairman, is ‘absolutely delighted that His Majesty recognised the work of the Association’s volunteers who, year after year, put in huge amounts of time and effort to enable the delivery of our many educational activities which generations of children, students and people across Suffolk have benefitted from. I extend my thanks to all the Association’s volunteers, in every role; we would not be the organisation we are without their invaluable contribution’.
The King’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by local volunteer groups to benefit their communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee and, following his accession, His Majesty The King emphasised his desire to continue the Award. Recipients are announced annually on 14th November, The King’s Birthday. Award winners this year are wonderfully diverse and include volunteer groups from across the UK, such as a social support network for disabled adults in Banffshire; a charity using a refurbished pool as a community hub in south Wales; volunteer doctors providing pre-hospital care across rural Cumbria and a village renewal organisation promoting sustainability, equality and social inclusion in County Antrim.
For more information on the Award please visit www.kavs.dcms.gov.uk