UK Nations Award for Volunteering
May. 23rd, 2006 07:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
llywelaToday was a pretty busy one, and not my usual 9-5 at the office. In fact, I spent most of the day at the Senedd in Cardiff Bay - the newly constructed home of the National Assembly for Wales, attending - and being official photographer for! - a presentation ceremony for a UK Nations Award for Volunteering for Wales, as part of the UK Year of the Volunteer.
The Senedd is an amazing building. I know it was really controversial while the building work was going on, but it really is stunning. I can't get over how much Cardiff Bay has changed in the last 10/15 years. I remember it as a working dock - now it is just beautiful.
For a ceremony that only lasted about 20 minutes, it sure did eat up an enormous chunk out of the day - we were there for hours, setting up, actually holding the thing, networking afterward, enjoying the refreshments provided...
The food was fab. I can thoroughly recommend the café at the Senedd. And the mingling was interesting - all kinds of people there, from teenage volunteers to Assembly Members - including, of course, Jane Hutt, the Minister for Assembly Business, who was actually receiving the award on behalf of the National Assembly for Wales. There were also representatives from the voluntary sector team of the Welsh Assembly Government - they are the ones we do all our reporting to, so being nice to them was fairly important!
Working a roomful of people like that for several hours is oddly tiring. But fun. Even more fun was the fun and games getting through security - all metal detectors, and Boss had to turn her entire bag inside out searching for a pair of nail scissors that had shown up. But the guards were all friendly and smiley.
We took a boxful of Trauma Teds with us, wearing sashes encouraging people to volunteer, and with our phone number. Gave most of them away - it's a great gimmick! Our knitters make these teds, and all kinds of other toys, clothes and blankets, and they are then donated to all kinds of good causes. Last week we sent several boxes of aid on a convoy to Romania, to the area recently devastated by floods.
Then at 2pm all the AMs vanished as that's when business in the debating chambers starts - so much fun standing up above and looking down at the tops of their heads! Even more fun was the bell that sounds to call them to order - it sounds exactly like the handbell they used to ring for playtime when I was in junior school!
Took a load of photos - here are a few:
Senedd:
Jo and colleagues setting up the display and posting with Trauma Teds; guess which one is me:
Jane Hutt receiving the UK Nations Award for Volunteering from volunteer Peter Arthur - Peter, who volunteers with my organisation, had been the one who originally received the award at a swanky event in London a couple of months ago:
One of the security guards with a Trauma Ted
Owain on reception with a Trauma Ted
View of Cardiff Bay from inside the Senedd:
View of Penarth Head across Cardiff Bay, from outside the Senedd:
The Pierhead Building - once the Coal Exchange, now used as part of the National Assembly for Wales:
Could go on - took loads more piccies, but that's enough for one post!
I love my city :-)
The Senedd is an amazing building. I know it was really controversial while the building work was going on, but it really is stunning. I can't get over how much Cardiff Bay has changed in the last 10/15 years. I remember it as a working dock - now it is just beautiful.
For a ceremony that only lasted about 20 minutes, it sure did eat up an enormous chunk out of the day - we were there for hours, setting up, actually holding the thing, networking afterward, enjoying the refreshments provided...
The food was fab. I can thoroughly recommend the café at the Senedd. And the mingling was interesting - all kinds of people there, from teenage volunteers to Assembly Members - including, of course, Jane Hutt, the Minister for Assembly Business, who was actually receiving the award on behalf of the National Assembly for Wales. There were also representatives from the voluntary sector team of the Welsh Assembly Government - they are the ones we do all our reporting to, so being nice to them was fairly important!
Working a roomful of people like that for several hours is oddly tiring. But fun. Even more fun was the fun and games getting through security - all metal detectors, and Boss had to turn her entire bag inside out searching for a pair of nail scissors that had shown up. But the guards were all friendly and smiley.
We took a boxful of Trauma Teds with us, wearing sashes encouraging people to volunteer, and with our phone number. Gave most of them away - it's a great gimmick! Our knitters make these teds, and all kinds of other toys, clothes and blankets, and they are then donated to all kinds of good causes. Last week we sent several boxes of aid on a convoy to Romania, to the area recently devastated by floods.
Then at 2pm all the AMs vanished as that's when business in the debating chambers starts - so much fun standing up above and looking down at the tops of their heads! Even more fun was the bell that sounds to call them to order - it sounds exactly like the handbell they used to ring for playtime when I was in junior school!
Took a load of photos - here are a few:
Senedd:
Jo and colleagues setting up the display and posting with Trauma Teds; guess which one is me:
Jane Hutt receiving the UK Nations Award for Volunteering from volunteer Peter Arthur - Peter, who volunteers with my organisation, had been the one who originally received the award at a swanky event in London a couple of months ago:
One of the security guards with a Trauma Ted
Owain on reception with a Trauma Ted
View of Cardiff Bay from inside the Senedd:
View of Penarth Head across Cardiff Bay, from outside the Senedd:
The Pierhead Building - once the Coal Exchange, now used as part of the National Assembly for Wales:
Could go on - took loads more piccies, but that's enough for one post!
I love my city :-)
