2018 Volunteer and Club Award Winners

Thank you to all of those who submitted nominations for the awards it is good to see so much activity going on to develop the sport and we thank all those volunteers and clubs who make orienteering happen across the country.  

British Orienteering is pleased to announce the winners of the awards:

Young Volunteer of the Year 2018 

Winner:  Holly Stodgell of Walton Chasers 

Holly has started up an after-school orienteering club at her school and is leading the training sessions, providing motivation to the group and setting the training schedule. She has coordinated a group of adults to take on the coaching and getting the group from nothing to light green/green standard is a huge achievement. 

It is great to see the next generation of volunteers so committed to the sport.

Volunteer of the Year 2018 

As part of our Year of the Volunteer, we launched this new award to recognise those volunteers committed to orienteering.  

Winner:  Alan Honey of Bristol Orienteering Klub 

In 2018 Alan has been Chairman of Bristol Orienteering Klub (BOK), organised the British Sprint Championships at Bath University, initiated the successful Track to Terrain project, started a training course for new coaches and volunteered numerous club events and activities. Alan put huge amounts of personal time and effort into these projects and, together with the team he leads has been responsible for BOK’s continuing successes. 

The commitment shown by all volunteers to the sport is a fantastic example of some of the work going on to deliver and develop orienteering across the UK. Congratulations to Alan Honey who this year is announced as Volunteer of the Year 2018.   

University Club of the Year 2018 

Winner:  Loughborough University Orienteering Club is University Club of the Year 2018. 

After the club was revived in 2014 following a long period of being dormant, LUOC has gradually increased membership, participation orienteering activities at the university to become one of the UK’s most active student orienteering clubs. The club has a busy training schedule with sessions on most weekday evenings and regular competition on weekends with much support for local club events from LEI, DVO, NOC and OD. Regular coaching for beginners means many have progressed to competiting on m/w21 elite courses. The club works closely with the University to support volunteers in a range of training provision for coaches and volunteers.  

It is fantastic to see such strong University Clubs and we can only hope that we see more University Clubs developing this strength in the future. 

Peter Palmer Coach of the Year 2018 

Winner:  Jason Falconer of Wessex Orienteering  

Jason is Head Coach of Wessex Orienteering and regularly delivers the Tuesday evening club training for all members. In addition, Jason works closely with Active Dorset to promote Orienteering, delivering a series of coached sessions over 6 weeks (half a term) to groups of Key Stage 2 children. The sessions progress through all skills of the sport and include a competition finale using S.I. kit; often off-site on one of WSX permanent courses. In Autumn of 2018 Jason worked closely with Beat the Street to link families in the Poole area to the club. 

Club of the Year 2018 

Winner:  South Yorkshire Orienteers is Club of the Year 2018. 

South Yorkshire Orienteers 

In 2018 SYO has continued to grow and develop through offering a wide-ranging program of events, club nights, socials and monthly coaching sessions. Club Nights are a recent addition initially funded by Sport England they are now self-sustaining with 60-70 participants per week during term time. The clubs Volunteer Coordinator ensures that the club's program is well supported and run regular training opportunities for members. In 2018 the club introduced a point scheme similar to parkrun where participants and volunteers get points towards a club t-shirt for their participation. SYO have strong links with community organisations across Sheffield and this has led to a diverse participant and member demographic.  

SILVA Award 

SILVA Award winner 2018 is John Warren (Wimborne Orienteers).

John has been an active member of Wimborne Orienteers since 1976 and in the years following has been involved in all aspects of orienteering. John took on the assistant organiser role for the JK in 1979 just 3 years after starting in the sport and didn’t look back organising, planning and controlling events at all levels over the past 42 years including organising the World Orienteering Championships Relays at Avielochan in 1999. Yet John has a particular passion in working with newcomers, helping introduce them to the sport and he is always on hand to offer skills advice and encouragement. He works closely with the local council to deliver Activate events and acting as lead coach for club activities on permanent courses he helped map, plan and install. To quote John: ‘‘Volunteering’ hasn’t been so much of an effort, it has mostly been a real sense of satisfaction and I hope that in a small way has contributed to a lot of people having enjoyable experiences taking part in the sport that we love."