'Love in Action' from Milton Keynes Seventh-day Adventist Church has been announced as one of 95 volunteering groups from across the UK winning this year's Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, recognising the outstanding contributions made to local communities by groups voluntarily devoting their time for the benefit of others.
The prestigious national honour, which is equivalent to the MBE, sets the national benchmark for excellence in volunteering. Love in Action (MK) has received the award for its work in relieving hardship and distress among people who are homeless, living in poverty or suffering from social or economic adversity. They were selected from 406 groups nominated by members of the public who have been helped personally or witnessed the benefits of a group's work in their community.
Love in Action (MK) will receive a certificate signed by the Queen and an exclusive commemorative crystal presented by Her Majesty's representative in Buckinghamshire, Sir Henry Aubrey-Fletcher.
Mike Johnson from Love in Action (MK) said: "We are thrilled to have received this prestigious honour for the work we do amongst those in the local community who are often invisible and forgotten." In congratulating the team SEC President, Pastor Sam Davis stated that, "this embodies what the church is all about."
The award is due in large part to the vision of the local Seventh-day Adventist church, in Fishermead, who formed Love in Action to bring hope to local people in their hour of need. Mike says, "The dedication of the team of volunteers, led by Anne Loftman, is the cornerstone on which this project has been built and continues to thrive. We are also grateful for the support of Tom and Isabella Fraser and their fellow Councillors from Campbell Park Parish Council who have championed this project on every level."
More than 700 groups around the UK have now won the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, over the seven years since it was created by Her Majesty to mark the occasion of her Golden Jubilee in 2002.
For details of all this year's Queen's Award for Voluntary Service winners and information on how to nominate a group that really makes a difference, visit
www.queensawardvoluntary.gov.uk.
We are trying to do what we can in the community of Great Yarmouth to help people. Recently we set up a team to work in the Yarmouth market place to give people health checks by qualified nurses, we have been visiting the elderly in a local residential home and also have visited the prison. There is much to do and we are only a small group our Milton Keynes Adventist Church is an inspiration and shows that there is a need to help people in whatever way we can and to show them love and that we care. Yvonne Hill
