| Just
months after winning a prestigious award for Bio Day, the CSV Action
Desk here at ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Gloucestershire is up for another top honour.
They
have been shortlisted, from a list of 40,000 events, for the best
local CSV Make A Difference Day event in the UK.
It's
for their initiative to spruce up the gateway to Gloucester - the
area between the city's train station and the main shopping precinct
- which involved more than 100 volunteers cleaning, planting and
painting the area to the side of the bus station in October.
The
ceremony takes place tonight at Plaisterer's Hall, London on Thursday
January 27.
Positive
Those
people nominated for the CSV Make a Difference Day Awards are amongst
the UK's top volunteers who have all had a positive impact on improving
the lives of others in their community.
The
Awards, to be hosted by CSV's President, Lord Levy, will be attended
by celebrities, MPs and national charities, who support and benefit
from CSV Make a Difference Day.
Top names supporting the campaign include Davina McCall, Pete Waterman,
Anthony Worrall-Thompson, Welsh First Minister Rhodri Morgan, Scotland's
First Minister Jack McConnell and the MPs Jacqui Lait and Des Turner.
A record
breaking 90,496 volunteers took part in CSV's Make A Difference
Day 2004, making a positive contribution to their local area.
Volunteers of all ages organised activities that included the transformation
of an army barracks into a centre for homeless people, a fairtrade
banana flash mob, a city garden makeover, and a clothes collection
for newly arrived refugee and asylum seeker families.
Welcoming
One
hundred and fifty people, including volunteers from the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Gloucestershire
CSV Action Desk, the City Council, and a range of other groups got
together to make the entrance to the city a more welcoming sight.
They cleaned, planted, painted and tidied the area, and a team of
local young people painted murals depicting the cultural diversity
in the city.
Martin
Evans (right), the CSV Action Desk Producer said: "The long
term effect of the event is that it's made the area safer as crime
has been dramatically reduced, the area is now much more attractive
for visitors entering the city and has given the people that volunteered
pride in their city."
Other
nominees in the Best Local CSV Activity Award category include CSV
GO London, CSV Action Desk, West Midlands and CSV Millennium Volunteers,
East Riding of Yorkshire.
Elizabeth
Salter, the CSV Make a Difference Day campaign manager said, "The
awards showcase the impact that people giving time can have in just
one day.
"As 2005 is Year of the Volunteer, we hope the awards will
inspire even more people to volunteer and really make a difference
to both their life and the lives of others."
The
2005 CSV Make a Difference Day takes place on Saturday 29 October
and promises to be the biggest and best yet.
To find out more about taking part, call free on 0800 284 533 or
visit www.csv.org.uk/difference.
If
you would like to comment on this story get in touch at gloucestershire@bbc.co.uk
or have your say on our
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ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½
Gloucestershire's CSV Action Desk have been nominated for an award
for their Make A Difference Day.
