Fitting for the Gardens Trust’s 10th anniversary year, 2025 has seen an extraordinary clutch of nominations for the Volunteer Award.
We’re delighted to announce that the winner was:
Sandra Pullen, who volunteers for the national Gardens Trust. Sandra was nominated for her contribution to the Gardens Trust’s Education & Training Committee and being a major player in the events programme over the last two years. Her nominator said: ‘Sandra’s volunteering over the past two years has been at the heart of our education work – devising, organizing and evaluating a range of varied, high-quality and well-received activities for members and non-members and adding to our reputation as a leading authority on historic gardens. In addition, Sandra’s work has helped produce high satisfaction levels with our members and has also contributed several thousand pounds to our coffers through carefully managed ticket-pricing and accounting. Sandra is a hugely valued member of the volunteer events team and deserves wider recognition for the significant contribution she is making to the organization.’ Sandra was presented with a certificate and glass trophy at the annual Volunteering Celebration on 9th July, held this year at Stowe Landscape Gardens. She commented:
“I’m absolutely delighted, thrilled, that the Gardens Trust have offered me this award, although to be honest I do feel I’ve got far more from it than I’ve given back. I would thoroughly recommend to anybody to volunteer for the Gardens Trust, they’ll really enjoy it.”
An award for Exceptional Contribution was presented to Colin Wing, who volunteers for London Parks & Gardens. He was nominated for being London Parks & Gardens’ in-house tech guru, including for fundraising and membership systems, as well as also organising and running cycle tours. His nominator said: ‘Colin’s input is truly invaluable. Colin’s remarkable dedication means he has volunteered for us in different forms for longer than some members of our office team have been alive! He does all this with good humour, kindness and endless patience. His dedication to the charity is unmatched and recognition is long overdue. The man is an angel and we dearly wish to share our recognition of his dedication and kindness.’ Colin commented:
“I think it says something about the amount of information that we have in London Parks and Gardens, not only about green spaces in London but also information we need to run London Open Gardens every year. I hope the work I’ve done for London Parks and Gardens over the years has actually enabled them to do all of that.”
We are all fortunate to benefit from incredibly unstinting and generous work contributed by volunteers in some cases over very many years or even decades and these stars are the backbones of their organisations. In this anniversary year it seemed fitting to reflect on these long-serving heroes and recognise them through a new Long-service award. The winners of this award in 2025 were Diana Matthews (Cumbria Gardens Trust), Marion Blair (London Parks & Gardens), Clare Greener (Devon Gardens Trust) and Jim Stockwell (Sussex Gardens Trust). This award will be given again in future years when appropriate.
“Since becoming a member of the Gardens Trust movement some 15 years ago, I have been hugely impressed by the skills, energy and knowledge that volunteers have brought to the work of the Trust, both nationally and locally here in Sussex. It has been a privilege to be part of the GT family and I’m delighted to be honoured with a long service award.” – Jim Stockwell
“I’m very proud for Cumbria, they’re such a good lot and immensely supportive of all we try to do and it’s been very much a team effort”. – Diana Matthews
“I’m really delighted, I’ve been involved with London Parks and Gardens for such a long time so its an honour to be acknowledged like this.” – Marion Blair
Of course, the 2025 anniversary year is about looking forward as well as back, so we have also introduced a Newcomer Award to recognise where we have benefited from a volunteer who although relatively new to the subject throws themselves into action and makes a quick impact. We were delighted to present this new award to Zhixin Zheng, who was nominated for giving support to the Gardens Trust Events team, from helping find new audiences, to building relationships with similar organisations, to generating promotional social media content. Her nominator said: ‘ Zhixin has been an asset to the GT team, having always been polite, friendly and willing to get stuck in to tasks. She has been impressively positive and up for taking on more which for a young student with no previous background or knowledge of historic parks and gardens has been a breath of fresh air.’ Zhixin has been one of the longest serving young volunteers we’ve recruited and is due to undertake a masters in cultural heritage at Edinburgh later this year.
“I’m really pleased and honoured to be receiving the best newcomer award! With every new opportunity I’m constantly learning more about the GT, garden history and gaining different skills to contribute to the GT’s work. I’m so grateful to the Events team and the other GT volunteers for their support, encouragement and wisdom.” – Zhixin Zheng
And finally, heartfelt Commendations saw certificates presented to India Cole (national Gardens Trust) and Annette Fettes (Kent Gardens Trust).
“I’m delighted of course to be given the Volunteer Award Commendation 2025, I wasn’t expecting anything so I’m thrilled to bits and really really pleased.” – Annette Fettes
Congratulations to all of this year’s nominees and say a huge thank you to everyone who joined us at the ceremony at the annual Volunteering Celebration!
The Volunteer Award will run again in 2026. For details of the nomination process please visit our Volunteer Award page. Having been launched for the GT’s 10th anniversary, both the Long-Service and Newcomer awards will be awarded again in future years and when there are appropriate nominees – please simply make your nomination to the overall award scheme and the judging panel will assess which award is most appropriate.
