Last year Sunbury’s Embroidery Gallery was given the prestigious Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service. This year the honour goes to another Sunbury institution, the Riverside Arts Centre (RAC). This is the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK. Sunbury is certainly doing well!
The RAC is one of only two enterprises in Surrey to achieve the award this year. 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 always wonderfully diverse. A group of 25 dynamic and highly respected volunteers, supported by one contracted cleaner, run the Riverside Arts Centre in Sunbury on Thames; in 2019 they contributed 900+ volunteering hours. Collaboratively, they foster and promote the maintenance, improvement and imaginative development of wide-ranging arts performances and activities for the residents of Spelthorne (8,000 visit the centre most years), across all ages, social backgrounds, gender and diversity. The RAC is committed to the furtherance of Art and Culture in Sunbury, Spelthorne, and beyond. It would be impossible without the time and dedication of volunteers past and present. Everyone from the Management Committee to those who dedicate their time make the centre the community hub that it is today – catering for over a 100 event nights a year and a large number of clubs, social gatherings, and classes. Riverside Arts Centre is one of 230 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the award across the whole UK 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.
Representatives of Riverside will receive the award from Michael More-Molyneux, Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, later this summer. Furthermore, two volunteers will attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace in May 2021, along with other recipients of this year’s Award.
Riverside Arts Centre Chairman, James Ford-Bannister says: “I speak on behalf of everyone at the RAC when I say that this a great honour for all of us. When we were unexpectedly nominated, we were proud just to be considered but to be awarded the QAVS is an achievement that further validates all the hard hours everyone gladly puts in to give back to our local community. However, I know that our volunteers won’t relax after this and will continue with the labour of love that is providing arts & culture in Lower Sunbury.”
So, the question is, who is next? There are so many inspirational ventures which deserve recognition. If you run one of them, do consider entering!