by Cherry How
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.
Camphill Clanabogan, which is in Northern Ireland, will receive the Award from the Lord Lieutenant of County Tyrone Robert Scott, OBE, later this year and in May 2021 two volunteers will attend a garden party at Buckingham Palace along with other recipients.
The citation for the Award reads:
“Working out of love for people and the earth as a sustainable and inclusive life-sharing community.”
We are thrilled and honoured to receive this prestigious Award for our efforts. It is the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK. We are very proud to have been chosen and have all the hard work recognised.
It is particularly gratifying to receive it in recognition of our core values. Significantly it comes at the very moment that we celebrate 80 years since the founding group of coworkers moved to Camphill House near Aberdeen in June 1940.
The aim of Camphill has always been to create a community life including people with and without learning disabilities, living and working together to uphold each other in a spirit of love and service for the wellbeing of humanity and the earth.
Since 1984, when Clanabogan began, it has been based on the contribution of volunteers sharing their lives with residents. Volunteers bring more than just their work and abilities, they enrich the place with new ideas and positive change.
The Award also pays tribute to the large numbers of our supporters who have given their time and energy voluntarily over the past 35 years: the Friends of Clanabogan, Trustees, donors and fundraisers, parents and families and all our local volunteers and international coworkers from the past years. We would like to thank them for their dedication and support. Without all these people we would not have achieved everything that exists today.
Last but not least we must include our residents who together with us enthusiastically help build up and maintain the community by their work and participation.
Camphill was founded on volunteering and it can be a lifechanging experience for a person. We hope that this Award will inspire a new generation of people to try this way of community life.