We’re so fortunate to have almost 250 volunteers dedicated to supporting all those impacted by sight loss here at Beacon. They carry out a variety of roles, from telephone befriending and volunteer driving to helping out in our retail stores or assisting at our fundraising events.
Between them, they give approximately 35,000 hours each year to make a difference for others and we so appreciate all that they do.
One of the ways we showcase their amazing achievements is through our annual Volunteer Awards and we wanted to share our stories of our 2022 winners and those who were highly commended.
New Volunteer of the Year Award
Christopher Morgan
Chris retrieves our collection boxes dotted around the region that have been filled up with loose change by Beacon supporters.
He’s also supported our Family Fun Colour Run distributing posters and leaflets around the local area to help promote it. Chris is always happy to help and has made a big difference in a short space of time.
Outstanding Contribution Award
Yvonne Pilsbury
No task is too big or too small for Yvonne who volunteers on our reception and in our telephone befriending scheme. Through both her roles she makes an incredible difference for the people we support and we don’t know what we’d do without her.
Innovation Award
Alison Concliffe
Alison has been supporting our Sedgley shop for almost a decade but is still finding new ways we can do things! She’s a forward thinker and has been planning ahead to ensure our window displays tie in with events over the past year and went all out to create some Christmas hampers, sold to raise funds.
Pictured is her most recent display, our Father’s Day shop window. She told us she wanted to receive the award on behalf of all the volunteers in the store.
Dedication Award
Kyle Hall
Kyle has been supporting Beacon in a variety of volunteer roles for an incredible 17 years. Most recently he’s been helping out with our Fab Lab where the team have described his assistance with design and customer service as ‘invaluable’.
We also wanted to mark three other volunteers who didn’t win but have made such a contribution that their efforts have all been highly commended. Sara Gorman is one of our telephone befrienders, she’s always willing and enthusiastic and has gone above and beyond to support our members through difficult situations. Jeanette MacKinney is also a telephone befriender who also went above and beyond to support someone through some really difficult times. Roger Green is our longest -serving Talking News volunteer having supported the service for 11 years. He’s an invaluable member of the team whose self-produced feature is a much-loved part of our weekly editions.
Thank you to all of our 246 incredible volunteers, they say the greatest gift you can give is your time and we can’t thank you enough for yours.
