To Mike and Bartley Sailing Club
26th November 2015
Thank you so much to John, Howard, Mike and everyone who supported and nominated me for a RYA 2015 Volunteer Community Award.
It was with great pleasure that I attended the ceremony last week to receive the Award. The ceremony was held after the RYA AGM and hosted by Sarah Treseder, RYA Chief Executive and the award presented by HRH Princess Royal. There were over 50 Award winners including 15 Community Award winners.
Colin (my Husband) and I had a wonderful time and were treated like royalty ourselves. In her opening speech, HRH thanked not only the award winners but those who supported them. She said that sailing would not be the sport it is today without the hard work and dedication of its volunteers. She recognised sailing, as being a learning ground for so many life skills and wanted it to be a place where, especially children could learn to understand risks for when, in the future, they may not be in a safe club environment.
So many well deserving people received awards and I am very humbled by the work that the volunteers have done and things that they have achieved. From talking to others we have a strong junior section envied by many and that is thanks to all our K2o instructors and volunteers. A true team effort.
Like so many, our Sailing Club is run by a strong team of volunteers who all contribute a huge amount in so many ways to deliver, high quality sailing, teaching, racing and a thriving junior section, in a safe, friendly and viable way, having an excellent club house and sailing facilities.
So whilst I am honored to have received the award, I accept in on behalf of everyone and thank you all for your support, especially Dave and Mandy at the beginning and more recently Howard, Richard and Lucy who have given so much of their time and for whom I thank for getting me so involved and enjoying every minute of K2o and work I do via sailing/main committees.
Fired up with the stories from other clubs I am anxious to encourage fresh ideas and involve many more of you, so please do help and support the club going forward, sailing is a great sport to be part of.
Thank you
Ann Kelly