Monday 15 December 2008

County award for Sport 4 NRG volunteer

Thanet district Council press release
A Margate teenager, nominated by Sport 4 NRG for his volunteering work with the scheme, has taken a top prize at a county wide competition.

Michael Dodson (16), who attends King Ethelbert school, was put forward for the Volunteering Excellence Awards 2008, organised by Kent County Council and one of three winners in the Kent Sports Development Awards section. He was presented with £400 to donate to a charity of his choice, which will be going to the NSPCC.

Michael started attending sessions with Thanet District Council’s Sport 4 NRG programme in 2006 and was keen to get involved with delivering the sessions, which aim to provide sporting opportunities for young people in Thanet and keep them occupied.. He then went on to attend a community sports course and gained his first aid certificate. He completed his “V” 50 hour award over the summer, but has now completed more than 200 hours with Sport 4 NRG.

He was described by the judges as being a “positive role model to troubled young people, showing patience, kindness and a willingness to listen. He is proof of the benefit of the scheme, as before becoming a volunteer, he was one of the young people for whom Sport 4 NRG was set up.”

James Gregory from Sport 4 NRG said: “For Michael to get this recognition is a real positive for him, as well as for all young people looking to volunteer. The skills that Michael has acquired through volunteering have led to further success in other aspects of his life. He’s gone on to enter further education and the volunteering work he’s done has given him the confidence to leave his comfort zone. Michael is evidence of what volunteering can achieve and shows why Sport 4 NRG is committed to offering further volunteering opportunities for its young people.”

Becky Stotesbury from VSU said: ‘Michael has been a fantastic ‘v’ volunteer, helping at a really wide range of events. I hope he will use his experiences on his CV in the future. Well done Michael!

No comments:

Post a Comment

Comments, since I started writing this blog in 2007 the way the internet works has changed a lot, comments and dialogue here were once viable in an open and anonymous sense. Now if you comment here I will only allow the comment if it seems to make sense and be related to what the post is about. I link the majority of my posts to the main local Facebook groups and to my Facebook account, “Michael Child” I guess the main Ramsgate Facebook group is We Love Ramsgate. For the most part the comments and dialogue related to the posts here goes on there. As for the rest of it, well this blog handles images better than Facebook, which is why I don’t post directly to my Facebook account, although if I take a lot of photos I am so lazy that I paste them directly from my camera card to my bookshop website and put a link on this blog.