The East Kilbride and District Young Farmers Club has been honoured with The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK.
The Club is affiliated to the Scottish Association of Young Farmers Clubs and is open to young people aged between 14-30 from any background. They offer a variety of social, sporting, agricultural and educational opportunities to their membership with a focus on encouraging personal development and transferable skills.
The East Kilbride and District Young Farmers Club is one of 241 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious award this year. The number of nominations remains high year on year, showing that the voluntary sector is thriving and full of innovative ideas to make life better for those around them.
The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by volunteer groups to benefit their local communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate The Queen’s Golden Jubilee. Recipients are announced each year on 2nd June, the anniversary of The Queen’s Coronation. Award winners this year are wonderfully diverse. They include volunteer groups from across the UK, including an inclusive tennis club in Lincolnshire; a children’s bereavement charity in London; a support group for those living with dementia and their carers in North Yorkshire; a volunteer minibus service in Cumbria; a group supporting young people in Belfast; a community radio station in Inverness and a mountain rescue team in Powys.
Representatives of East Kilbride and District Young Farmers will receive the award crystal and certificate from Lady Haughey CBE , Lord-Lieutenant of Lanarkshire later this summer. Furthermore two members of the East Kilbride and District Young Farmers Club will be invited to a garden party at Holyroodhouse in July 2022.
Receiving news of the Award former club Chairman, Joe Cameron said: “As a club, we’ve always taken pride in our involvement with the local community – we aim to be a group that anyone can approach to ask for help with their projects so everyone can share the benefits. We use our voluntary work as a way of helping our own members to develop their own skills as well, so it works both ways. I’m absolutely delighted to see EKYFC honoured with this award as I think it recognises the effort the club and its members have put in over a period of decades to make a lasting contribution to the East Kilbride community”.
Lady Haughey CBE commented: “I am delighted that the tremendous work of the East Kilbride and District Young Farmers Club has been recognised in this way , it is an organisation committed to engaging in mutually beneficial projects to both aid the local community and provide opportunities for their own members to develop themselves. I very much hope that we will see other excellent groups from Lanarkshire nominated for the Award in the future ”.
Notes to editors
- Lord-Lieutenants represent the monarch in each of the UK’s ceremonial counties
- This year there were 241 recipients of The Queen’s Award Voluntary Service from across the UK and Channel Islands
- More information on the recipients and the Award can be found at https://www.gov.uk/queens-award-for-voluntary-service
- Full details on how to nominate are available at https://qavs.culture .gov.uk/.
- Nominations for the 2022 awards close on 15th September 2021.