Volunteers, supporters and helpers have been the backbone of our social fabric during the entire COVID pandemic, alongside ensuring some critical operational aspects of healthcare and industry have been delivered. Volunteering Matters CEO Paul Reddish along with his father Paralympian Tim Reddish CBE took on a massive challenge to showcase volunteering projects in the UK. They set out in Volunteer's Week, on a gruelling 1000km cycle tour to give a heartfelt thanks and celebrate as many of these incredible people as possible.

Volunteers have been at the very heart of the response to the pandemic. The generosity and commitment given by ordinary people giving up their own time on vital support services such as local mutual aid groups, supporting isolated people and vaccine roll out have achieved some incredible things. This is a great way to shine a spotlight on their incredible work and say thank you.

Run solely by volunteers and born out of a COVID-19 mutual aid group in London, UK. #PinYourThanks enables the Great British public to give a lasting, heartfelt and personal thank you to their pandemic 'heroes' by giving beautiful pin badges designed by celebrities and public figures, all whilst raising money for good causes.

The Visit

Paul and Tim stopped at The Swan on their penultimate day of their ride through Britain. As well as taking on some refreshments, they gave out some awards to local community members who had been highlighted as making a significant contribution. IT as June 6th and a nice day, not too sunny so ta lads could continue on without getting heat exhaustion.

We Pinned Our Thanks on Tony Cross

Tony Cross,a Weekday Warrior, collected a Pin and a bag of goodies from Volunteering Matters. This recognising the effort he has been putting in to our local community hub.