Community Volunteering Event 2021
On the 10th September 2021, Diana Hardman (pictured above), the Battersea Alliance’s Volunteering Development Officer organised a successful celebration of community volunteering in Battersea. Here she explains more.
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"Wow, what a year it has been working in Battersea and setting up Battersea Volunteers! Last Friday it was time to celebrate all the amazing community volunteering that has been taking place over the pandemic."
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Providence House provided the venue, right next door to Clapham Junction Station. Marquees were put up and the scene was laid for 14 Battersea organisations to come together for a Volunteer Fair. 100 flyers were posted around locally as businesses happily displayed them in their windows. We tweeted about it and people turned up on the day to find out what was in store for them. Everyone remarked how fantastic it was to see everyone in real life, face to face and get together like this. The rain held off and the smiles made it feel radiant.
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In the early evening Cllr. Richard Field, the Mayor of Wandsworth arrived to present 21 ‘certificates of recognition’ to local residents and organisations who had been nominated. The Mayor gave a fantastic speech about the importance of volunteers and a short film (watch on YouTube here) was shown featuring a number of organisations talking about the importance of volunteering and what it means to them.
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Thank you
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Thank you to the stallholders for being there, including: Battersea Befriending Network, Begin 2 sports group, Big Local SW11, Free2B Alliance, Home-Start Wandsworth, Katherine Low Settlement, Leonard Cheshire, Little Village, Providence House, Share Community, Wandsworth Care Alliance, Waste Not Want Not Battersea, Women of Wandsworth.
And congratulations to the following volunteers who were recognised for exemplary volunteering.
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Aaron Barbour’s nomination – Battersea Coronavirus Angels team award
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Battersea Befriending Network – Trish Daniel, Chris Culwick
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Carney’s Community – Nick Cornwall
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Home-Start Wandsworth – Team award for their 80 volunteers
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Katherine Low Settlement – Elders team award including Byron Williams, Andrew Cheeseman, Liz Shaw, Denise Walker, Samah Al Chahad, Illyes Adam
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Leonard Cheshire – Kate Foss, Paul Henman, John Littlewood, Barbara Kimber
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Providence House – Elias De Souza
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Sarah Rackham’s nominations – Battersea Befrienders team award & Helen Trout, Richard Trout; Sound Minds team award; Waste Not Want Not Battersea team award
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Women of Wandsworth – Andrew Beech, Andrea Moore
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We can’t wait for Volunteers Week (1-7 June 2022) to do it all again!
If you’d like to volunteer in Battersea then please contact:
Diana Hardman
Battersea Alliance’s Volunteering Development officer
Battersea Volunteers
07956 617 084