It is Volunteers Week 2023, an annual campaign which runs from 1st to 7th June recognising and celebrating volunteers all across the UK for their contributions to their communities and society.
At P2G we are so lucky to have so many amazing and wonderful volunteers who go above and beyond for our charity and incredible supporters who help us to do our work in the community changing, transforming, and saving lives across Oxfordshire and beyond.
We also love celebrating and rewarding our volunteers – some of them have been recognised in the Didcot Town Council Awards, some of them have been recognised in the OCVA Awards and we also celebrate them internally, through our own awards scheme.
In March 2022, we celebrated some just some of our amazing volunteers, and supporters, with our very own prestigious annual award, through ‘The Angela Norris Play2Give Award’, named in the memory of our late supporter, Angela.
We launched the award in early 2022, and through nominations received, we recognised the invaluable contributions that our first ever nominees made to our charity, in many ways.
In total seven shortlisted nominees was celebrated and recognised on the night of our Hollywood gala ball last year, pictured.
One of the nominees was an amazing young man, Daniel Lloyd BCyA, from Didcot, who set up Markers for Mindfulness in 2021.
Daniel was nominated for his support to our chariry through raising over £430 in 2019 througn the Newbury colour fun run, which he completed in memory of his close friend, Harry, who passed away in 2019. Daniel also was recognised for his contributions to gifting toys and gifts each year as part of our ‘Sleigh2Give’ Christmas appeal.
Daniel is an incredible young man whose faced adversity and challenges but his resilience, determination and dedication to making live better for others earnt him the nomination.
Chloe Boyne, who now resides at Southampton Uni, was also recognised last year for raising funds for us through her NCS Didcot group in summer 2019, and through taking part in the OX5 RUN as part of Play2Give Heroes, raising funds for the Oxford Children’s Hospital.
Other nominees included Jordan Sharp, who now works for Elite Bounce, and was recognised for being our sporting and challenge events officer at the time.
And of course our secretary Leanne, who has been part of our team since 2019, was also a nominee recognised for her immense and incredible contribution to ensuring our charity is a success.
We love our volunteers, and so in 2021 we implemented our ‘P2G Hero’ scheme where for every £30 or more raised by a supporter, they receive a certificate of appreciation and a medal.
Over our lifetime we have been so fortunate to have had many individuals take on many superb sponsored challenges from running marathons to taking on 1000km runs across a month, to sponsored walks, taking on head shaves and sponsored tattoos, and more.
Some of them have gone to greater daring lengths with the adrenaline fulled kind of challenges such as skydives and many have baked cakes, danced for hours on end, dyed their hair and more.
As a charity we wouldn’t be able to do what we do without our supporters and without our volunteers who are the lifeblood of our organisation, and at P2G we are all volunteers, with no paid staff, so that as much money as we raise goes back into our communities and goes to the charities and individuals in need that we help, to make an enormous difference on the lives of those that our work impacts.
So once again join us in saying a huge thank you to all of our wonderful volunteers, they are all superstars, and we think all of our volunteers are amazing P2G Heroes.
If you would like to become a volunteer for our charity click here where you can learn more and fill in a quick and easy form to reach us!
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