Students and staff were thanked for putting in the hours volunteering in Hillingdon with a Venetian Masquerade Dinner, live music and circus acts.
Hillingdon Mayor and Mayoress, local charities and organisations were among 140 guests at black-tie event, the yearly Brunel Volunteer Awards Ceremony on Friday.
“This has been an amazing year for Brunel Volunteers,” said Brunel Volunteers Manager Nancy Rawlings. “I would like to thank all students and staff who have supported Brunel Volunteers and who have given their time so freely to help and support others".
This academic year, 598 Brunel students gave 17,072 hours of their time to good causes through volunteering for 68 local charities. Out of those, 202 students notched up enough hours to earn a Brunel Volunteers Award. Thirty-three got gold awards for volunteering 100 hours or more, 51 earned silver awards for doing 50 hours and 118 got bronze for giving 25 hours of their time. Oxfam Uxbridge, 2nd Uxbridge Scouts, Victim Support Hillingdon, Age UK Hillingdon and Ealing Law Centre are just a handful of the different charities they helped.
Awards also went to Hillingdon For All (H4ALL), which scooped Charity of the Year 2018, visual effects student, Erno Frak, who was crowned Volunteer of the Year and Building Services Controls Supervisor Peter Turner who won the Staff Volunteering Award. The final award – Outstanding Contribution to Volunteering – went to Amy Pretorius for her exceptional dedication to volunteering activities.
Erno, who volunteered for Social Activities for Multiple Sclerosis (SAMS) plus several Brunel events was nominated by the Brunel events team’s Beth Martin. She said: “Erno is an excellent fundraiser and organiser who has a great rapport with the public. We have worked with a number of volunteers over the year and Ernie stands out for all the right reasons.”
Peter was rewarded for his work with the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal for Uxbridge, Hayes and West Drayton. “We are happy to support the volunteering initiative at Brunel,” said Peter’s manager, Chris License, who looks after Estate Systems at Brunel. “It is good to give something back to the wider Brunel community outside of our normal daily jobs.”
Reported by:
Hayley Jarvis,
Media Relations
+44 (0)1895 268176
Hayley.jarvis@brunel.ac.uk