Livingston-born, Emilie Rankine, (15), who has been volunteering at Boghall Drop-in Centre for the past year has been presented with a personalised framed certificate and a £100 Gift Card, courtesy of The Centre, Livingston in recognition of her outstanding efforts going the extra mile to help people in the local community.
The Centre, Livingston has been paying tribute to volunteers in West Lothian for almost 10 years, which is part of its ‘Support in the Community Initiative’, aimed at giving recognition and rewarding people who give up their own time to help others.
Over 100 volunteers have been welcomed into the shopping centre to collect their award, including Irene Kinroy at The School Bank West Lothian who helps distribute donated uniforms to youngsters and Charlotte Renwick, who has spent years fundraising for various charities and embarking on lots of different activities, including skydiving with her grandson to raise funds for Barnardo’s.
Other local heroes include Jodi McNeill, a volunteer at S.M.I.L.E Counselling, who works with young people to support them with their mental health and wellbeing and Julian Korcipa at The Vennie in Knighsridge, who helps to provide educational and social opportunities, also for young people, including football and creative clubs.
Following a recent appeal to shine a light on even more volunteers, the management team at The Centre, Livingston received a glowing letter from the charity co-ordinator at Boghall Drop-in Centre, Kelly Drummond, which was full of high praise for Emilie and the incredible work she does every day after school.
The Boghall Drop-in Centre, which is a grassroots charity dedicated to supporting the needs of the community, was created in 2004 with the aim of helping to make a difference to the lives of local people in the area.
It provides a wide range of services, including youth clubs, which are attended by an average of 25 youngsters at each session, and a community shop to help combat food poverty,
When Kelly read about the appeal for volunteers, Emilie immediately came to mind, based on her dedication to every role she has taken on and reaching almost 500 hours of volunteering since February this year.
Her role includes everything from sorting through Christmas donations for families in need, helping at the after-school club, and organising fundraising events.
To be able to help the team in other areas, Emilie has enrolled in various training courses, including a Level 2 Food Safety and Hygiene for Catering Course which allows her to lead some of the cooking activities. Since completing the course, she has encouraged many of the other volunteers to sign up to help strengthen their skillset.
In recognition of her outstanding work, Emilie was recently appointed as a Youth Representative on the Board of Directors to help ensure the charity is delivering the appropriate support for people who need it most and that the views and needs of young people are also catered for.
Kelly said: “Emilie has such a wonderful personality, and her kindness and friendliness make her a very popular volunteer with everyone who drops in to the charity and uses our services.
“She brings such creativity to every group she supports, including the weekly youth clubs, ‘Breakfast with Santa’ events and ‘Dinner and Dab’ nights for old people in the community – the activities she plans are always great fun!
“In recognition of her hard work, we were delighted to welcome her on to the Board of Directors to ensure that the views and needs of young people are catered for.
“There is no task that Emilie will not give her best to – she is always the first one to arrive and set up and the very last one to leave after she’s helped with the tidying up.
“She even organised a trip to the pantomime for an elderly group of people we support and made lovely goody bags for them.
“Emilie’s creativity really helps to bring a vibrancy to the clubs, and her reliability and leadership also helps to ensure they all run very smoothly, which is why she is very deserving of this wonderful Volunteer Award from The Centre, Livingston.”
Emilie, who was invited into The Centre, Livingston to collect her certificate and £100 Gift Card with Kelly and her mum, Nikki, who also works at the charity, said: “I’ve always really enjoyed volunteering at Boghall Drop-in Centre and getting the opportunity to create activities for the clubs and feel really lucky that the staff like the ideas and always support me.
“It feels nice to have the charity put me forward for this Volunteer Award for doing something that I love, which can be hard work at times but great fun and for The Centre, Livingston to pick me – thank you!”
Emilie is one of 26 volunteers at Boghall Drop-in Centre, which founded an ‘Apprenticeship for Volunteers’ programme in 2014 for young people aged 12 and over.
The aim of the programme is to encourage young people to make a positive impact in their community and highlight the valuable role they play in making it happen. As they get older, the role also includes mentoring younger volunteers to help them gain new skills.
Patrick Robbertze, Centre Director at The Centre, Livingston said: “We are thrilled to be able to present Emilie with our Volunteer Award in recognition of the outstanding work she has been doing to help run the services at Boghall Drop-in Centre for the past year.
“The time, effort and dedication she gives to helping others in her local community is commendable and definitely deserving of this Award.”
If you know someone who is giving up their time to help others, whether it is regularly checking in on elderly neighbours or volunteering like Emilie, The Centre, Livingston wants to hear all about it! Please send nominations to [email protected].