Team of volunteers dedicated to much-needed resource nominated for Your Champions award

Sep 19 2012 by Linda Foo Guest, Heswall News

A TEAM of volunteers who dedicate time and hard work to a much-needed resource have been nominated for a Your Champions award.

Hoylake’s Wednesday Special Needs Club (WSNC) have been going for 19 years and have a soft play sensory resource for children and young people to enjoy.

The club, based at Hoylake Community Centre, is run by volunteers and led by secretary Carla Williams who also helped set it up.

From there it has gone from strength to strength with around 85 children and young adults from the age of 10 who meet every Wednesday evening.

The club is supported by 20 volunteers and has no official funding.

They rely heavily on the Hoylake 10k Fun Run fundraiser held every September, along with a summer fair, to help with the upkeep of the resource.

Volunteers have been nominated for team champion category.

Carla, 66, a retired systems analyst from West Kirby, said: “It is a team effort and we have at least 45 volunteers helping at special events such as the 10k.

“It is thanks to the volunteers why we have achieved so much and survived for so long.”

This year’s fun run saw 750 runners raise £9,500 for WSNC.

Over the 19 years the event has totted up £130,000, with added monies coming from other fundraisers and grants from organisations.

There are five award categories to nominate – champion of the year, champion volunteer, champion young person, champion team, and sporting champion.

Finalists will be invited to a gala dinner at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Chester on Friday, November 9 with international snooker player Dennis Taylor presenting the awards.

To nominate visit www.wirralnews.co.uk/yourchampions2012 to fill out the form.

Or send the form opposite to Linda Foo Guest, Your Champions, Wirral News, PO Box 48, Old Hall Street, Liverpool L69 3EB. Or download a nomination form from www.scottishpower.com/your_champions/

Closing date for nominations is October 12.