At the Cayman Islands Red Cross (CIRC) annual 10th Volunteer Appreciation Dinner held on Saturday, 17 January at The Westin the Volunteer of the Year Award went to Olivia Raposo Vaz.

The dinner is held each year to thank and honour the men, women and children who have selflessly and consistently assisted the community through their service to the organization.

More than 100 persons were present at this year’s event and the Honourable Deputy Governor, Mr Franz Manderson, was present to congratulate them, express his gratitude for their work and hand out the presentations. In congratulating them he said, “At a time when you can’t turn on the radio without hearing more about what is going wrong and what needs to change, you are part of the solution.”

Carolina Ferreira, Red Cross deputy director, said, “We say this every year, but it’s always worth repeating: volunteers don’t do what they do for the awards, they do what they do for the love of the community and a genuine interest in leaving things a little better than how they found them. There is no way to appropriately thank them for their contributions, but there are far too many thankless jobs out there, so at the very least we can try to let them know just how grateful we are for their commitment and that they are appreciated.”

Peter Milburn received a special recognition by the organisation for his outstanding contributions, as well as for his long standing commitment to the work of the Red Cross. Milburn is a past chairman. He is also founder of the annual CIRC and Royal Bank Golf Tournament that is now in its 18th year.

Outstanding volunteers recognised for their commitment and contributions were: For the Disaster Management Programme: “DM Volunteer of the Year 2014”- Ransford Fagan; “Outstanding Community Support- Disaster Risk Reduction” Herfer Hyde, Nicole Hyde and Elaine Thomas; “Effective Newcomer 2014” Simon Watson; “Finance Guru- Disaster Risk Reduction” Christine Godfray For the First Aid Programme: “First Aider of the Year”- Olivia Raposo and Dulsey McCoy; “First Aid Programme Support”- Patrick Todd For the Thrift Shop Programme: “Thrift Shop Volunteer of the Year”- Olivia Raposo; “Shop Floor Award 2014”-Sonia Morris; “All Around Support”- Marcia Kelly; “TS Container Project Award” Orville Hutchinson.

For the HIV and AIDS Awareness and Education Programme: “Outstanding contribution and support of the CI Red Cross” in the Protection Starts Here project: Mari Abe, Cindy Blekaitis, Sophia Chandler-Alleyne, Nancy Davey, Laura Elniski, Camila Ferreira, Miriam Foster, Ben Hudson, and Ania Sedgley. For general office administration: “Commuity Events Special Support”- Horace English; “General Administration Support”- Kerene Husbands; “Fundraising Initiative”- Susan Singleton.
Since 1961, the CIRC has been assisting the most vulnerable within the islands through its main programmes: Disaster Management, First Aid/CPR/AED training, the Thrift Shop community outreach, and HIV and AIDS Awareness and Education.

Though 2014 was a difficult year financially for the CIRC it was also a year of key accomplishments in the organisation’s main programmes that included:

30 youths were trained as junior lifeguards
More than 1,000 people were trained in basic first aid, CPR and the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED)
75 people in different districts were trained as part of the Community Emergency Response Teams
The Thrift Shop assisted 100 clients with furniture, clothing and household items
The HIV and AIDS Awareness and Education Program initiated its partnership project, “Protection starts here,” for training and awareness in conjunction with the Red Cross, and developed an educational DVD.

To get involved, log on to www.redcross.org.ky or contact the Programme Support Officer on [email protected] or 949-6785 ext. 0.

IMAGES: CIRC