Top Queen's award for Gairloch Community Car Scheme voluntary group
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A LIFELINE transport group described as "the silent backbone" of a Wester Ross community has been honoured with the highest voluntary service award in the country.
Gairloch Community Car Scheme (GCCS), a group madce up of volunteers, is being honoured with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.
It is a testament to the dedication and commitment of a team of more than 60 volunteers who give freely of their time to provide an invaluable service for the local community.
Starting from small beginnings at the end of 2000, the GCCS now serves a widely dispersed rural coastal community of 2200 people.
The scheme provides a vital service for people without access to a car or unable to drive, enabling them to get to health care and hospital appointments, go shopping and join in social activities.
It is not only the elderly who benefit as a recently acquired school bus gives children in the area a reliable method of getting to school which is more cost effective for the Highland Council. This larger vehicle is then available for schools to use for trips, sports clubs to use for away matches and community group outings.
Ross and Cromarty Lord Lieutenant Joanie Whiteford, the Queen's representative in the county, said: "I am delighted that this group’s work has been nationally recognised in this way. During our assessment visit one of the volunteers described the scheme as 'the silent backbone of the community', and having been in operation for 20 years it is difficult to imagine how this sparsely populated, isolated and remote area would function without this lifeline scheme."
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. Recipients are announced each year on June 2, the anniversary of the Queen’s coronation.
Representatives of Gairloch Community Car Scheme will receive the award from Joanie Whiteford, Lord Lieutenant of Ross and Cromarty later this year. Two volunteers from Gairloch Community Car Scheme will attend a garden party in Edinburgh next July.
Full details on how to nominate are available at https://qavs.culture.gov.uk. Nominations for the 2021 awards close on September 25.
