Tunnel trust’s volunteers earn Queen’s Award
DUDLEY Canal and Tunnel Trust volunteers are another group to have been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.
They support an internationally important heritage site, ensuring the Dudley Canal Tunnel and limestone mines remain at the heart of the community.
In normal times activities are wide ranging, with learning volunteers supporting school visits by teaching children about rocks and fossils or Black Country industrial heritage; befriending volunteers who run the Chit Chat conversation club in the Gongoozler cafe every Tuesday morning, engaging with those in the community who may be feeling isolated; to garden and towpath volunteers ensuring visitors have a great time on the boat trips and the site and surrounding waterways are kept clean and tidy.
Volunteer co-ordinator, Rebecca Cooper-Sayer, said: “I am so proud of our team of volunteers. They all work so hard in their different roles and I am thrilled that this hard work and dedication has been recognised in such a prestigious way.”
The trust is one of 230 organisations this year to be honoured with the highest award for voluntary groups. Nominations for the 2021 awards close on September 25, 2020.
Representatives will receive the award from John Crabtree OBE, Lord Lieutenant of West Midlands later this summer. Furthermore two volunteers from Dudley Canal & Tunnel Trust will attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace in May 2021, along with other recipients of this year’s award.
Trust CEO Traci Dix-Williams said: “Volunteers have been the backbone of the organisation for almost 60 years. Their hard work and dedication has helped ensure that the Dudley Canal and Tunnel Trust, a heritage site of international importance, is preserved and remains at the heart of the local community.”
www.dudleycanaltrust.org.uk