Fatima Speight, Linda Clifford, Placement Officer with the Kerry Volunteer Centre and Thandie Dike at a celebration of Kerry Volunteers at the Tralee Wetlands earlier this year. Photo by Dermot Crean
THE Kerry Volunteer Centre is encouraging all of the county to start nominating people for the national Volunteer Ireland Awards.
Nominating is free and can be done online on www.volunteerkerry.ie. The deadline for nominations is Friday, October 24 so there is still time to nominate someone you know.
The Volunteer Ireland awards are the national awards to celebrate local volunteering in Ireland. The Awards now in their 7th Year aim to celebrate and recognise the thousands of people across Ireland who give their energy and time to benefit others.
Every Kerry Volunteer nominated for a Volunteer Ireland Award will receive a special Thank You card from Volunteer Ireland acknowledging their contribution.
Kerry Volunteer Centre is calling on the public, local community organisations, voluntary groups, charities, sporting clubs, schools and resource centres to make time thank their volunteers by nominating them for an award in one the ten categories listed below.
• Arts, Culture & Media
• Health & Disability
• Children & Young People
• Campaigning & Awareness Raising
• Community
• Education & Training
• Social Work
• Animals & Environment
• International Development
• Sports & Recreation
This year Volunteer Ireland have announced that the ‘Volunteer of the Year’ award will, from 2014 onwards, be named in memory of Christine Buckley.
As co-founder of The Aislinn Centre, Christine campaigned tirelessly on behalf of victims of institutional abuse for more than 25 years. Christine was Ireland’s Volunteer of the Year in 2009 and went on to be presented with the award for ‘European Volunteer of the Year’ at the European Parliament in Strasbourg the same year. Christine sadly passed away in March this year.
The Awards are open to volunteers of all ages in Kerry working with Irish volunteer involving organisations.
Nominations received will be shortlisted down to 30 Volunteers who will be invited to attend a gala award ceremony in Dublin on December 4th, the eve of International Volunteering Day.
There will be an award for every category as well as the overall ‘Volunteer of the Year’ award. Anyone can nominate, the only requirement is that the nominee must be a volunteer.
