Youth volunteers excel

DISABILITY Shetland, Virtually Safe Virtually Sound and Nethan Watson of FAST Football and Wast Lings Ramblers scooped the three top prizes in the annual Shetland Youth Volunteer Awards ceremony.

Held at Mareel on Tuesday, Disability Shetland made history by becoming the first two-time winner of the organisation award.

The organisers received 38 nominations over three categories – organisation, one team and individual young volunteer of the year.

These were whittled down to three shortlists of four candidates in each category:

• Organisation: Disability Shetland, Police Scotland youth volunteers, Shetland Befriending Scheme and Shetland Pony Riding School;
• One team: the members of the Scottish Youth Parliament for Shetland, OPEN Peer Educators, Shetland Budokai Karate volunteers and Virtually Safe Virtually Sound;
• Individual: Sarah Hazell, Imogen Leslie, Lailey Sinclair and Nethan Watson.

Youth volunteering development worker Neil Pearson said the organisers had been “astounded” by the quality of entries.

The awards are sponsored by Voluntary Action Shetland, The Rotary Club of Shetland and BP Sullom Voe.

“It really did come to the wire in all three categories and that is testament to the real difference these volunteers and their supervisors are making to our small community,” Pearson said.

“Congratulations to all of our winners and to everyone who was nominated and thank you to everyone involved in such a fantastic celebration of youth volunteering.”