A special awards ceremony to honour volunteers in Merton Libraries was held last week (Thursday 28 June).
The event held at Morden Library, awarded people for their outstanding contribution such as Walid Kronfol who volunteered over 1000 hours and Priyanka Kichkar for volunteer of the year. Other categories included volunteer team success of the year and special recognition for excellence.
Head of Libraries Anthony Hopkins and Deputy Mayor, Councillor John Bowcott were on hand to present certificates and congratulate those who were winners on the night.
Cabinet member for community and culture, Councillor Nick Draper who closed the ceremony with a speech said: “Our very loyal and hardworking volunteers have transformed Merton’s libraries over the past four years, and they are the key to wonderful possibilities for the future. This was recognised by the Team London Award they won this year, and the ceremony was a small token of Merton Council’s appreciation.”
Walid Kronfol winner for highest number of hours volunteered said: “I thought the celebration event was superb and I enjoyed meeting volunteers from other Libraries. I had a great time and was really proud to win my awards. I appreciated that my work at Raynes Park Library and other volunteers at other Libraries were recognised.”
Volunteer of the year Priyanka Jichkar said: “I was delighted and couldn’t believe that I won the Volunteer of the Year Award! I love volunteering at Donald Hope Library and I have learnt and developed a number of new skills through my volunteering role! I really enjoyed the celebration event and was overwhelmed with meeting all of the other amazing volunteers!”
ENDS
Notes to editors
– Since April 2011 534 volunteers have been recruited
– Merton’s volunteer retention rate is 83%
– Merton’s volunteering model has been used to lead a pan-London libraries volunteering bid ‘Love Libraries Love Volunteering’. The project has received £100k of funding from — Team London with Merton’s Library service acting as the lead authority and 13-pilot boroughs involved.
– There were 23615 hours of volunteering in the last year
– 14% of volunteers have moved onto paid employment