Carol Edwards, the Chair of Trustees of Middleton Elderly Aid, received the King’s Award for Voluntary Service on behalf of the organisation at a special event on Wednesday 2 April.
The organisation threw a party at Belle Isle Working Men’s Club for the 60+ volunteers who help MEA deliver its services to older people in Middleton.
The guests of honour were the Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire, Mr Ed Anderson and the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Cllr Abigail Marshall Katung.
Carol introduced the guests and told the volunteers:
“You should be very proud of yourselves for what you’ve done and I thank you all for doing it.”
The Lord Mayor said:
“Huge congratulations on behalf of the city and the council to all of you volunteers. I want to say a huge thank you for being who you are and most importantly the difference that you make in the lives of people here. We’re infinitely grateful for all that you do.”
The Lord Lieutenant explained that he is appointed by the king to be his personal representative in the county. He went on:
“One of my duties is to present the King’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award that a voluntary group can achieve, it’s equivalent to an MBE.”
The King’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by local volunteer groups to support their communities.
It was created in 2002 to celebrate Her Majesty The late Queen’s Golden Jubilee and was continued following the accession of His Majesty The King. 2024 marks the second year of The King’s Award for Voluntary Service.
Recipients are announced annually on 14 November, The King’s Birthday.
To be considered for the award you have to be nominated by someone independent of the group, there follows an assessment process and of 26 nominations in West Yorkshire last year, only 12 were successful.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am that you have won this award” he continued “and I’d like to echo what the Lord Mayor said about what a wonderful job you do and importantly the difference you make to people’s lives. I can’t thank you enough for everything that you do.”
The citation on the certificate reads:
“To Middleton Elderly Aid for reducing the isolation of the over 60s population of the Middleton area of Leeds
“We being cognisant of the said group’s outstanding voluntary work in the community and being desirous of showing our royal favour do hereby confer upon it the Kings Award for Voluntary Service”
The certificate is signed by the King and comes with an engraved crystal award.
The Lord Lieutenant and Lord Mayor then presented long service awards to volunteers and the celebrations continued.
Main photo: Carol Edwards receives the award from the Lord Lieutenant of West Yorkshire and the Lord Mayor of Leeds
While you’re here, can we ask a favour?
South Leeds Life is published by a not-for-profit social enterprise. We keep our costs as low as possible but we’ve been hit by increases in the print costs for our monthly newspaper which have doubled in the last two years.
Could you help support local community news by making a one off donation, or even better taking out a supporters subscription?
Donate here, or sign up for a subscription at bit.ly/SLLsubscribe
