Rewarding our volunteers

At our team conference, All Together Now, five of our volunteers were honoured with a Room to Reward voucher as a small token of our appreciation for their commitment and efforts.

Room to Reward is a unique volunteer-recognition charity. Hotels donate their unsold rooms to Room to Reward who then donate them to volunteers nominated by different charities. This year, we nominated five of our amazing volunteers who all received a well-deserved hotel break!

Eamonn Bownes, our HR and Volunteer Administrator, who organised the rewards, said: “It was wonderful to pay tribute to our incredible volunteers at the team conference with Room to Reward. We have so many volunteers contributing in so many ways and it was fantastic to be able to recognise the special commitment of Margaret, Alison, Pat, Mark and Lynsey. Our volunteers play a vitally important role in the mission of New Hope; we couldn’t do what we do without them, so it was fantastic that the whole organisation was there to acknowledge their incredible contribution.” 

Alison, who has been volunteering for over 30 years in the Watford charity shop, said: “It was a very humbling experience to be nominated for the award. It was really nice to be able to get together again after these past few years, it was a really lovely day.”

Pat, who has been volunteering with admin in the Fundraising and Communications Office for 13 years, said: “The whole event had a lovely atmosphere and the room looked fantastic! I was absolutely gobsmacked to be nominated! I’m very much a backroom volunteer so I really was quite humbled. As volunteers we know we’re appreciated and to take it to this level is quite exceptional.”

 Mark, who helps by collecting donated food from a local supermarket for the Haven drop-in, said: ”It was a really nice surprise to have been nominated for Room to Reward by Debby from the Haven! I had a great day at All together Now. I was seated next to Tim Robson [one of New Hope’s co-founders] so it was nice to spend time with him and get to know more about all the amazing things that New Hope does.”

We are grateful for all our volunteers who serve in so many different ways across the charity. If you would like to get involved, please have a look at newhope.org.uk/volunteer to see our current needs.