Wetwheels Hamble presented with prestigious King's Award for Voluntary Service
Wetwheels Hamble celebrates “tremendously proud moment”
A Hampshire charity which enables disabled people to experience life on the water through its fully accessible powerboat has been presented with a prestigious award as it celebrates 10 years of its services.
Wetwheels Hamble was presented with the King’s Award for Voluntary Service on Thursday, May 14 at the Royal Southern Yacht Club. It was an evening of dual celebrations as the group looked back on a decade where it has enabled more than 15,000 disabled people to enjoy life-changing experiences on the water alongside their friends and families.
Geoff Holt MBE DL, founder of the Wetwheels Foundation and one of the original directors of Wetwheels Hamble, said: “I feel incredibly proud and humbled to see so many volunteers and supporters gathered together for an organisation that started with a simple belief that disabled people should have the same opportunity as everyone else to enjoy being on the water.
“Wetwheels has always been about inclusion, fun and breaking down barriers, and it is the volunteers who make that possible every single day for people who otherwise may never get the opportunity to experience the sea.”
The event was attended by volunteers, skippers, crew, sponsors, supporters and founding members whose hard work and dedication have contributed to the success of the charity and provided disabled people with an opportunity that many of them would never have believed to have been possible.
Andy Fell, Director of Wetwheels Hamble and Vice President of the Wetwheels Foundation, said: “This is a tremendously proud moment for everyone connected with Wetwheels Hamble. It was not only a celebration of what has been achieved over the past 10 years, but also a chance to look ahead to what we hope to achieve in the next decade.
“None of this would have been possible without our incredible volunteers, crew, supporters and sponsors who continue to give their time, energy and commitment to changing lives.”
The awards was presented by the Lord-Lieutenant of Hampshire. Nigel Atkinson. He said: “It was a great honour to present Wetwheels Hamble with the King’s Award for Voluntary Service in recognition of the incredible contribution volunteers have made to the local community.”
The King’s Award for Voluntary Services is is regarded as one of the highest honour given to local voluntary groups in the UK and is widely recognised as the equivalent of an MBE for voluntary organisations.