VOLUNTEERS from the Post area have picked up awards for their commitment to the community.

Bude’s Deb Rosser and Camelford’s Chelsea Vidler have both come away with awards following the Volunteer Cornwall awards ceremony, held last Thursday in Newquay.

Deb has been recognised for her dedication to the local environment with the Volunteer of the Year award, whilst Chelsea came away with the Young Volunteer award.

Chelsea, who volunteers at the Old Bank Youth Café in Camelford, picked up the award for Young Volunteer. She was up against two other shortlisted nominees, including Sammy Emery, who also volunteers at the Youth Café.

Chelsea said: “Myself and a fellow volunteer, Sammy, from Youth Café were nominated for our commitment towards the group, in which we got shortlisted to attend the awards ceremony at the Atlantic Hotel in Newquay.

“Sammy received highly commended for her work, and I received the overall award for Young Volunteer. I do a lot of volunteer work across Cornwall for young people, but to receive an award for his honestly means the world. I never thought I would be shortlisted, let alone receive an award for what I do. It honestly makes me feel happy that I can help others, and being recognised for it has made my world.”

Also celebrating was Deb Rosser from Bude, who not only won in her category for Environmental Volunteer, but scooped the coveted overall Volunteer of the Year award too.

Since moving to Bude eight years ago, Deb, a teacher at Bude Primary School, has committed much of her spare time to keeping her local beach at Crooklets clean and tidy, organising regular beach cleans there. She is also the founder of ReFILL Bude, a scheme that encourages people to buy a ReFILL cup and take it to the participating cafes and restaurants in Bude to refill.

This is to sway people away from the purchase and constant use of plastic bottles, which are found so frequently in the sea and are a huge contributor to the ocean’s plastic pollution crisis. Starting in Bude, this initiative has now reached areas in the UK such as Bristol, Bradford on Avon and Dorset.

Deb, who says she is in a ‘state of shock’ since being invited to the awards, was one of three people shortlisted amongst many who were nominated in the Environmental Volunteer category. There were ten categories in total, with an overall Volunteer of the Year category.

Deb was nominated by Natalie Gibb from Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s Your Shore Beach Rangers Project. Following the awards, Deb said: “I am in total shock, but incredibly proud to say I was awarded Environmental Volunteer 2017 and, amazingly, the overall volunteer award.”

Natalie nominated Deb for her beach cleaning work on behalf of Keep Britain Tidy’s Beachcare project, her work with Bude Sea Pool as a committee member, starting ReFILL in Bude, which has now gone countywide to Cornwall Wildlife Trust Beachcare and Clean Cornwall, the work she does as a teacher through her Plastic Minions Environment Club after school, and introducing ReFILL eco reusable hot drinks cups.

In her nomination, Natalie spoke of Deb’s vast list of volunteering activities in Bude, and wrote: “Deb has done wonderful things for both the environment and her community. She is the definition of an environment hero, and I couldn’t think of anyone more worthy for a nomination of a Volunteer Cornwall award.”

Deb said: “I am really stoked and mega proud to call Bude my home. The community here is awesome. We moved here eight years ago to ‘live the dream cliché’. Seeing the effect of plastic litter on our wonderful beaches made me want to get involved with beach cleans. Reducing the number of plastic bottles littering our beaches, filled with water which has travelled hundreds of miles and could have been in that plastic for years, together with non-recyclable cardboard hot drinks cups with their plastic lids that we find in the environment, has been a great success, with hundreds of pounds being raised for Bude Sea Pool in the process.

“I feel I have accepted these awards on behalf of everyone who does amazing things for the environment in Bude. It is all of their awards too, not just mine, and it is great for Bude — we are often forgotten up here, but there is so many good things happening, a real exemplar town.”

Another Bude volunteer with reason to celebrate was Claire Garrett, who was recognised with a highly commended for her volunteering as a mentor for young people in the Children and Schools category.