Mayor celebrates capital’s volunteering stars

A host of famous faces showed their support for volunteering in the capital by attending the Mayor’s annual Team London Awards held at City Hall this evening, which celebrate the outstanding contribution made by Londoners to support young people, reduce crime, improve the quality of life for excluded and disadvantaged Londoners and green and clean the city.

Designer Wayne Hemingway MBE, TV presenter Anneka Rice, footballer Ledley King, double world record holder for blind speed skiing Kevin Alderton and Masterchef winner, and founder of Wahaca restaurants Thomasina Miers joined the Mayor to present awards to the winners, including:

The Mayor pledged a volunteering legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Team London, his volunteering initiative, has realised this by mobilising over 100,000 Londoners to undertake volunteering. Team London offers volunteering opportunities across a huge variety of projects, from providing respite to families with sick children to regenerating community green spaces, and supporting people with mental health problems, to coaching the next generation of athletes.

The Mayor of London Boris Johnson said: “The work that Team London volunteers do is central to the success of the capital’s thriving communities. Their hard work, innovative ways of helping others and their sheer dedication have helped to make London a cleaner, greener and more inclusive place for everyone. The award nominees should be very proud; they have helped to make a big difference to the lives of their fellow Londoners. Huge congratulations go to tonight’s winners, all of whom are incredibly deserving of this recognition.”

The Mayor’s Senior Advisor for Volunteering, Veronica Wadley, said: “As part of the legacy of the Games we wanted to create the next generation of volunteers so I am particularly proud to see young people across London volunteering their time in a range of wonderful projects to help others. I'm delighted that we took the opportunity to celebrate their invaluable work at the Team London Awards. We are creating new Team London opportunities every day to help even more people to get involved and give something back to our capital and I hope our award winners are an inspiration to others.”

The awards marked a successful year for the Team London programme as it smashed its target to reach 100,000 volunteers nine months ahead of schedule in July. Across the capital, Londoners of all ages are now lending a hand in their local communities as a result of signing up to Team London. More than 40,000 adults and nearly 60,000 young people have signed up to volunteer through a range of programmes.

Deutsche Bank and ASOS won the top accolade in the corporate category at the awards in recognition of the volunteering work these companies and their employees do to help communities and small charities in London. Over 100 large companies are now signed up to the corporate commitment initiative, which was set up by the Mayor to encourage all businesses to volunteer their time to make a difference to communities in London, to build their staff’s skill set and to recognise the value of volunteering experience in the recruitment of young people.

Team London Ambassador Wayne Hemingway said: “Being an Ambassador for Team London is a great privilege. To be able to be there tonight to recognise these inspiring individuals and organisations who, through their hard work and dedication, make such a difference to our city is incredibly rewarding.”

The Team London Awards, now in their fourth year, have already recognised the dedication and commitment of over 350 volunteers from across the capital.

Full list of award categories and winners:

Under 25 – Hip Hop Garden Project from Merton

Over 25 – Andrew Irvine from Enfield

Team – North West Kent Countryside partnership volunteers

Under 25 – Calum Donaldson from Camden

Over 25 – Andy Matfield from Hackney

Team – Camp Simcha Big Brothers and Sisters

Under 25 – Paige Maye-Lubrano from Southwark

Over 25 – Charlene Hutsebaut from Kensington and Chelsea

Team - Nightstop London volunteer hosts, city-wide

Deutsche Bank and ASOS

Under 25 – Daniel Khalid, Barnet

Over 25 – Philippa Leguen de Lacroix, Waltham Forest

Team – RLSB (Royal London Society for the Blind) Community Services Volunteer Team

Individual – Ann Farrell from Havering

Individual – Erica Farmer from Richmond

Individual – Hilda Lyons from Redbridge

Individual – Nigel Newton Sawyerr from Tower Hamlets

Good Gym, city-wide

My Community – Gearies Primary School, Redbridge

Mentoring and Coaching – Southfields Academy, Wandsworth

Sports and Healthy Living – Cardwell Primary School, Greenwich

Greening and Cleaning – Oasis Academy Johanna, Lambeth

Individual – Kevin Lincoln from Haringey

Brampton Primary Academy, Bexley

Abbotsfield School, Hillingdon