Volunteers honoured for their dedication - The Stratford Observer

Volunteers honoured for their dedication

Stratford Editorial 22nd Jun, 2022   0

VOLUNTEERS from the district have received platinum awards from Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance (WNAA).

Faith Hall, from Tysoe, has been volunteering for the lifesaving charity since 2007.

Faith said: “In 2005, Tysoe Social Club decided to have a fundraising event for WNAA as the lifesavers had been in the village one week prior when a child had been hit by a car.

“There was no stopping me then, we had a fun-packed afternoon, local businesses donated prizes for a raffle tombola and balloon race from which we raised a nice amount of money for the charity,” she added.




Since Faith began volunteering for the vital cause, she’s brought in more than £20,000 for the service through tin collections, cheque presentations, and selling her homegrown produce.

Barbara Barnacle and her husband Tony, from Priors Marston, have organised coffee mornings, stalls, and sold Christmas cards. They have even become known as ‘Mr and Mrs Air Ambulance’.


Barbara said: “I started volunteering in 2003, but not officially until a few years later. The local air ambulance flew to our village to attend a lady who was in a diabetic coma, they had only been operating for three weeks at that point, and the pilot said the charity needs people to raise money for them.”

Four weeks later, Barbara hosted a coffee morning in her house to raise funds for the service, and she has not stopped since.

“So many people came to support, we then had another coffee morning the next year and our house was packed. It’s become legendary and we now have an annual coffee morning in the village hall where we have people with different stalls attending who donate money,” added Barbara.

Since Barbara began volunteering for the vital cause, she’s brought in an astonishing £146,000 for the charity.

Sue Haslett, WNAA head of volunteering, said: “Our volunteers help in a variety of different ways across the charity, whether they’re raising funds out in the community, supporting in our offices or warehouse, delivering projects, or helping in our shops – every hour that they give makes a difference.

“We couldn’t operate without them, and I’d like to say a big thank you to Faith and Barbara for their incredible dedication, and to each other volunteer for their ongoing support which helps us to save lives.

The charity has over 1,200 dedicated volunteers – and with over 50 different volunteering roles it is always looking for more people to donate their time or expertise.

Jess added: “Volunteering has just become part of our lives, we started, and we couldn’t stop, we enjoy being out in our communities and helping to put the message of the charity’s work out there, we also like feeling a part of the charity – our maths has gotten better too,” added Jess.

Visit www.theairambulanceservice.org.uk for further details on volunteering.

 

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