We’re thrilled to reveal that following the announcement at our Volunteer Celebration on 15th July at Sheffield Botanical Gardens, the winners of our 2024 Volunteer Awards are Barbara Moth of Cheshire Gardens Trust and Claire de Carle of Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust.
Due to the outstanding calibre of nominees, you’ll notice that there are two winners this year – Barbara Moth is the winner of our annual Volunteer Award and Claire de Carle is the recipient of a brand new award for Exceptional Contribution, newly created in recognition of those who have made a difference to their County Gardens Trust either in the long or short term. Congratulations Barbara and Claire!
Barbara Moth won our Volunteer Award for her outstanding contribution to all of Cheshire Gardens Trust’s activities, management, research and leadership over a period of more than 20 years. Barbara has made a huge difference, owing to her involvement in a breadth of activities including organising conferences and study days, leading the Caldwell Nurseries Project, writing articles and delivering outreach events which have engaged new audiences.
Claire de Carle was recognised for her achievements in reaching out and engaging new audiences with garden history, including the setting up of the Buckinghamshire Gardeners’ Network, delivering activities like a Heritage Open Day and sessions for the Chiltern Young Archaeologists’ Club and leading Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust’s audience development strategy over the next five years.
During the ceremony our Chair Peter Hughes also gave special commendation to Zhixin Zheng, for her work helping to publicise our events to a wider audience. Zhixin is one of the youngest volunteers ever nominated and in light of this we are exploring ways we recognise the achievements of our new and younger volunteers in the future, so watch this space!
We’d also like to take this opportunity to congratulate all of this year’s nominees and say a huge thank you to everyone who joined us at the presentation ceremony at Sheffield Botanical Gardens.
For more information on our Volunteer Award and how you can make a nomination next year click here.
