Announcing the Barry Clout Volunteering Award Winners for 2022

As Medway’s vibrant Voluntary and Community Sector continues its recovery in the wake of Covid-19, Medway Voluntary Action are pleased to announce that they have again received a considerable number of local volunteer nominations for their Barry Clout Award for Outstanding Contributions to Volunteering in Medway.

Since early August MVA have been receiving local volunteer award nominations from a wide range of local organisation’s and groups and are delighted to report that the remarkable community response witnessed during the pandemic has continued to grow from strength to strength.

MVA’s Barry Clout volunteering award is an annual celebration of the outstanding contributions volunteers make to volunteering and local communities every day across the Medway towns.

Nominations were presented to a panel of judges consisting of Martyn Reeves (Chair VCS Leaders Network), Peter Stokes (MVA Trustee) and Roland Stanley (Dragon Co-Working).

The panel were very impressed at the inspiring volunteer stories they heard and found it very hard to decide on this year’s winner.

Martyn Reeves (Chair VCS Leaders Network) said: “I am honored to be part of the judging panel for the Barry Clout Award. Our volunteers are an invaluable asset to the voluntary sector and I was humbled when I read about the dedication and commitment given by the nominees in the nomination forms. Every nominee is a winner in my eyes, but Medway is the biggest winner thanks to their continued commitment to the good causes they volunteer for”.

The whole panel recognised that all of the nominees this year demonstrated a very high standard of commitment, passion and contribution to Medway’s communities and wishes to thank all nominees for their generous support.

Roland Stanley, from Dragon Co-Working said: “What an honor it is to hear the stories of just a few of the incredible volunteers from across Medway. The dedication, commitment and selflessness of these individuals is truly humbling and I hope the Barry Clout Award goes some way to highlighting and thanking them for their service to the towns”.

MVA are delighted to confirm that the winner of this year’s Barry Clout Award goes to a group nomination of 4 volunteers who have been supporting Medway’s LGBTQIA+ communities for over 40 years. They are:

• Hilary Cooke (Medway Pride)
• Derek Arrowsmith (Medway Area Gay Independent Community aka Magic)
• Peter Moorcraft (Medway Gay Men’s Health Forum)
• Martin Adams (Medway Gay Men’s Health Forum)

The runner up award for 2022 goes to Bill Bhatia who volunteers on the Medway Towns Gurdwara Council amongst a number of other local VCS organisations.

All of the award winners, and their nominators, attended MVA’s AGM where they were presented their awards or certificate by the Mayor of Medway and recognised for their amazing contributions over the last year.

Certificates of recognition have also been sent out to all the other volunteer nominations received to recognise and thank them for their commitment.