Immediate Release

Guildford Town Guides,  a group of volunteers from Guildford  have been honoured with the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK.

The Guildford Town Guides have taken thousands of residents and visitors on a journey back over 1000 years to learn about the history of the town and its residents of the past.  This includes The Guildford Story walk, and several special themed walks including Lewis Carroll, Medieval Guildford, Victorian Guildford, Industries, Pubs and Inns and the more recent additions of special walks on the life of Alan Turing and his family in the town, and Leading Lights, looking at the famous artistic residents.  These walks are all free for the public to join and more details including dates and times can be found here: www.guildfordwalks.org.uk

Representatives from The Guildford Town Guides attended a garden party at Buckingham Palace in May, along with other recipients of this year's Award. 

The Guildford Town Guides is one of 281 charities, social enterprises and voluntary groups to receive the prestigious award this year. The number of nominations and awards has increased year on year since the awards were introduced in 2002, showing that the voluntary sector is thriving and full of innovative ideas to make life better for those around them.

The Queen's Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by volunteer groups to benefit their local communities. It was created in 2002 to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee.  Winners are announced each year on 2 June – the anniversary of the Queen's Coronation. Award winners this year are wonderfully diverse.  They include volunteers helping people overcome mental health problems through sport, volunteers using caravans as mobile cafe/information centres in geographically remote locations and another group mentoring children who have a parent in prison.

Representatives of The Guildford Town Guides will receive the award from Mr Mike More-Molyneux, Lord Lieutenant of Surrey later this summer.

The Leader of Guildford Town Guides, Nick Bale says:

“I am delighted that our efforts to introduce new and surprising elements in some of the walks that we lead has been recognised. I would like to pay tribute to the contributions every volunteer makes to our continued success.”   

Ends:

Notes to editors

1. Lord Lieutenants represent the monarch in each of the UK's ceremonial counties.
2. This year there were 281 winners of The Queen's Award Voluntary Service from across the UK. More information on the winners and the Award can be found at https://www.gov.uk/queens-award-for-voluntary-service
3. Any group of two or more people that has participated in voluntary work for more than three years can be nominated for the award. Full details on how to nominate are available at http://qavs.direct.gov.uk/
4. Nominations for the 2020 awards close on 13 September 2019.

For more information contact Nick Bale: nicholasbale23@googlemail.com