Islington celebrates its volunteers of the year 2016
Islington’s Volunteer of the Year 2016 is Chatelle Jeram, who gives her time to Islington Bereavement Service run by St Joseph’s Hospice. In the words of a bereaved woman to whom Chatelle has given invaluable support over the last year, even helping her through a period of feeling suicidal: “Chatelle is very special and I don’t know what I would have done without her.”
Phil Boye-Anawomah, Acting Chief Executive of Voluntary Action Islington said:
“We love running the Islington Volunteer of the Year Awards because we get to find out about so many of the wonderful but often unheralded things people are doing for each other in our community.”
This year the trustee of the year category was renamed in honour of long-term Voluntary Action Islington trustee Pat Haynes. The first Pat Haynes Memorial Trustee of the Year is Jean Willson who is the current Chair of Centre 404 and has been working with them for over 40 years. On being nominated, Jean said, “I was very moved, as Pat and I go back over forty years when I was an activist and he was a councillor.”
The Volunteer of the Year Awards, sponsored by Doubletree by Hilton and Marco Pierre White Steakhouse Bar and Grill, were presented by the Mayor and the Young Mayor at the Voluntary Action Islington AGM.