Wag & Company volunteers receive the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service!

Wag & Company volunteers receive the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service!

Wag & Company volunteers receive the Queens’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest award a voluntary group can receive in the UK.

Created in 2002 to celebrate the Queen’s Golden Jubilee, the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service recognises outstanding work by volunteer groups to benefit their local communities. Recipients are announced each year on 2nd June, the anniversary of the Queen’s Coronation.

Fellow award winners this year are wonderfully diverse. They include volunteer groups from across the UK, including a community shop in Cornwall, an environmental group in Swansea, a group working with refugees and vulnerable people in Stirling and a thriving community arts centre in County Down.

Representatives of Wag & Company will receive the award from Her Grace the Duchess of Northumberland, Lord Lieutenant of Northumberland later this year.  In addition, they will attend a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace in May 2021 along with other recipients of this year’s Award.

Director, Diane Morton, said “We are delighted that the special contribution of our amazing volunteers has been honoured in this way.   It has been such a privilege to watch more and more great people with lovely dogs joining this amazing community of volunteers every week since we started in 2016.  Here we are now, more than 400 strong, having made over 74,000 Friend Visits  and nearly 3000 elderly people are benefitting;  fantastic!

Even though we had to temporarily suspend our visiting activities in March because of the Covid-19 restrictions, undeterred by these challenging times, every day, Wag volunteers are working hard to make the lives of their elderly friends brighter right across our North East communities.

Their commitment to developing creative ways to keep in touch and keeping people’s spirits lifted is really inspirational and we’re ecstatic that their kindness and hard work has been recognised.

Congratulations #TeamWag!