We’re delighted to share wonderful news from Boldon & Cleadon Community Library, who have been awarded The King’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest honour a UK voluntary group can receive.
This achievement recognises the library’s exceptional volunteer-led work, its deep community partnerships, and its inspiring commitment to being ‘More than Just a Library’. We’re incredibly proud to celebrate this success with them and invite you to read the full announcement from their Chair of Trustees, Gail Barkel:
As Chair of the Trustees for Boldon and Cleadon Community Library I’m delighted to share with you that we are amongst this year’s winners of The King’s Award for Voluntary Service, which was announced today, the 14 November. The King’s Award for Voluntary Service aims to recognise outstanding work by local volunteer groups to support their communities and is the highest award a local voluntary group can receive in the UK, equivalent to an MBE.
We couldn’t have achieved this without the ongoing support we’ve had from South Tyneside Council, and our local MP’s and Councillors past and present. The support we receive from individuals and groups who offer their time and expertise, free of charge, helps us to deliver an amazing programme of talks and events, every month. We’ve also had support from several local organisations including Cleadon and District Rotary Club, who have helped sponsor our Memory Café, the Little Theatre who have shared their venue with us to raise funds and Boldon Blossoms WI, who made us their local charity this year. In addition to local organisations, we have also received support from Barbour and The Alex Ferry Foundation which has enabled us to replace internal lighting, replace the roof, re-fit the kitchen and re-decorate the Library.
This year has also been especially exciting as we received a grant from The Community Lottery fund to build a new extension, after being able to demonstrate the positive impact the services have on our community. Without doubt 2025 has been our most successful year and to have now received the KAVS award we are truly honoured.
All of this has enabled us to, not only continue delivering services, but to enhance the offer and achieve our ambition to be ‘More than Just a Library’, a true community hub, open to all. For this we want to thank all our supporters for making this a possibility and to join me in congratulating our volunteers who have done an outstanding job all year round.
We will receive the award crystal and certificate, from His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of Tyne and Wear, Ms Lucy Winskell, in the coming months. In addition, two volunteers from the library, will attend a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace in May or June 2026.
We will, of course, want to celebrate this achievement in our own way and will contact you further in the new year with our plans.
I hope you will all join me in thanking our volunteers for their service and congratulate them on their achievement.