In the Spotlight... Volunteer of the Year Award Winners and Runners-up

Today British Orienteering is proud to shine the spotlight on...

British Orienteering Volunteer of the Year 2021 Award Winners and runners-up. 

This award is in recognition of the outstanding volunteer work carried out by individuals up and down the country to ensure the delivery of a vibrant Orienteering scene.  

Congratulations to the winners of this award:  Katherine Bett (Southern Navigators) and Pete Maliphant (Bristol Orienteering Klub).  

Katherine Bett presents and produces the running podcast, “The Run In” a great platform, reaching out to orienteers, especially the younger generation. “The Run In” has the likes of professional interviews but also discusses topics such as gender equality in orienteering. Katherine also went on to start a focus group that explores this topic further. This year Katherine has also been involved with coaching juniors in her club and the talent squad south, going with them to important races, camps, and weekends where she has also been coaching. During a time when we were not allowed to do competitions, Katherine organised a MapRun tournament for her local Club which helped keep people's motivation up to keep training. On top of this, she was also the organiser of the Southern Navigators trophy in November 2021. A competition with 640 competitors.  

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Pete Maliphant has been the manager of the South-West Junior Orienteering Squad (SWJOS) for many years now. His enthusiasm and dedication to supporting subsequent generations of young orienteers has never wavered, and he creates a serious yet fun environment for learning and personal development. During lockdown Pete set up a weekly Zoom slot for the squad from skills teaching to games, from guest speakers to personal testimonies, he has sustained a huge array of content, much of which he has drawn out of the youngsters themselves. For some of the youngsters confined to their homes for so many months, the SWJOS online sessions have been of huge psychological value in keeping their spirits up and giving them some sort of social outlet. In many ways, this has been more valuable than the actual orienteering content.  

Many congratulations to both Katherine and Pete!

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Other amazing volunteers whose efforts have been drawn to our attention and are greatly valued are...  

Caroline Mackenzie (Chair of Cleveland Orienteering Klub) has been instrumental in appointing a Development Officer and starting Couch to Green training courses for those new to Orienteering and encouraging all club members to be part of this. She has proactively approached local councils for funding and support in developing fixed courses in the area to update them, so they are more accessible to all via mobile tech. Caroline has also supported the use of Maprun, used for weekly challenges and she has reignited the club newsletter on a weekly basis. 

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Peter Harris continues to support and steer Humberside and Lincoln Orienteers as Chairperson. With his wife, Pete is involved in organising and planning events, including the very successful Lincolnshire Poacher series each year. 

Stephanie Pruzina as Chairperson of Lagan Valley Orienteers steered the club around all the Covid barriers and prepared Lagan Valley Orienteers to be the first club in the UK to put on an event after lockdown. A great deal of credit must go to Steph and the way she led the committee, volunteer officials, and club members to run a very successful and safe event. Through this period of uncertainty, Steph really pushed the club to look outward and seek out new members and participants but without forgetting the need to develop the skills and areas needed to progress the current membership. Steph stepped down from being Chair in March 2021 to allow her to focus on the development of club juniors and the Northern Ireland Junior squad and as a result, was also nominated as Coach of the Year for 2021.  

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Adrian Pickles Chairman of Wrekin Orienteers for the past two years has kept the club up and running when covid made everything about running a club very difficult. Not only has he maintained the committee through zoom, but he has singlehandedly put on events, navigated the covid regulations for events, and responded with practical and proportional changes to how events were run. Now he is determinedly looking forward to improving the club. 

David Alcock (Airienteers) is the club's main club coach for adults organising and running an annual weekend residential course as well as specific Saturday sessions mainly aimed at our adult newcomers. David has successfully integrated Orienteering into the fabric of the school he teaches at, which has been reflected in a number of young people joining our club and enjoying success at the 2021 British School Championships. David takes a full part in Committee activity as he is the Club Secretary with all that entails. In all his various roles David’s love of the sport and enthusiasm to share is always clear to see.  

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Richard Foster (Airienteers) has been instrumental in the club’s operations for several years - for example, he was the club’s treasurer for several years.  The past twelve months have, however, seen him step up to another level! As well as mapping at an ever-increasing rate, especially focussing on urban areas, he was the organiser of February’s British Night Championships on Ilkley Moor, and he is the planner of June’s British Sprint Championships at Leeds University.  As an employee of the university, he has also played a crucial role in the organisation of the latter event.  Richard also takes on way more than his fair share of organisational and planning responsibilities despite his commitments at the two Airienteer national championships of 2022.   

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Neil Croasdell has been heavily involved with work for East Pennine Orienteering Club, both in front and behind the scenes, which is often not directly visible. Neil has been a committee member for a number of years and recently has taken on the role of coordinating the review and update of Permanent Orienteering Courses. He has been instrumental in chivvying club members to 'adopt a Permanent Orienteering Course' with good success enabling him to be more aware of the condition of the Permanent Orienteering Courses and maps as well as the work required to improve them. Neil has also been forthcoming with organising East Pennine Orienteering Club events in new or challenging areas regarding access.  

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Jacky Dakin (South Yorkshire Orienteers) dedicates hours of her life to all things orienteering, focusing greatly on the development of the South Yorkshire Orienteers juniors, coaching juniors on a weekly basis. She also organises fundraising and transport for juniors and their families to important competitions. Jacky is not just junior focused, she is South Yorkshire Orienteers membership secretary and organises events both competition and social. Outside of South Yorkshire Orienteers, she is the Yorkshire Squad Chef, everyone’s favourite volunteer after a long run! 

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British Orienteering would like to take this opportunity to say thank you to all who submitted nominations for British Orienteering's Annual Volunteer of the Year Awards this year.  

Many congratulations to all our winners and runners-up and a big thank you for all that you do for our sport of Orienteering!  

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The second spotlight today will focus on the winners and runners-up of the Young Volunteers of the Year Award. 
Check out the British Orienteering website at 14:00 this afternoon.