Redway Runners granted ‘King’s Award for Voluntary Service’
November 14, 2024
by Martin Lawrence
Frontpage Article, Headlines, News Specials
His Majesty the King on his 76th birthday has Granted Redway Runners the ‘King’s Award for Voluntary Services’
This is the highest award that can be given to Voluntary Organisations, it is the MBE for Volunteer Groups and is part of the UK honours system, it is something the club retains permanently.
The Citation with the award is:
‘Transforming mental and physical health across the community, volunteer led, one run at a time.’
Club Chair and founder of Redway Runners, Martin Lawrence said, ‘I am so proud of this massive news that recognises the work that so many people do for free for the club to make it such an important part of changing the lives of so many people, including my own, the work everyone does is so much appreciated by the club members and this award demonstrates this is really appreciated by the Milton Keynes and wider community’
This award is for all of our volunteers those seen by members and those who work so hard behind the scenes, we have at any time around 140 – 160 volunteers in the club, so this is for the Committee, Run Leads, Event Teams and so many helping behind the scenes, a massive thank you, for making this happen and changing the lives of so many people and along the way making Redway Runners probably the biggest running club in the country and world that meets weekly for runs (well not just one run, around 40 runs each and every week of the year, plus five events and races).
What happens next
14 November 2024 — Awards officially announced
The Award announced from 9am, in The Gazette, GOV.UK and on the KAVS website. It is promoted widely on social media pages nationally and the club are putting out information and have sent press releases.
Please join in and make sure you use the hashtag #KAVS2024 and tag @KingsAwardVS.
Mid December 2024 to April 2025 — Lord-Lieutenant presents the Award
The Lord-Lieutenant for Buckinghamshire, as The King’s representative, will present Redway Runners with a certificate and a commemorative crystal at a local ceremony. We will be arranging with the Lieutenancy office a suitable date and time for this and let everyone know.
May to July 2025 — Royal Garden Party
Martin will represent Redway Runners at a Royal Garden Party at Buckingham Palace
What does this mean
In the short term
Due to having to keep this strictly confidential we have had a very small team planning for today’s announcement and we have:
Press Activity
We have issued press releases widely to celebrate this news, so hopefully may see activity about this
Drinks
Celebrate by meeting for a drink or two in Wetherspoons, near the station tomorrow Friday 15 November for drinks from 7pm – everyone welcome
Cake
We will be having cake at the Milton Keynes parkrun, plus will have cake at the Sunday runs, Social and Step Up/ramble, plus at the Under 18’s group.
Royal Theme week
For Milton Keynes parkrun, which is our big green parkrun this is going to be a nice celebration, and we will get a big green ‘family’ photo celebrating this honour.
All next week we are asking the run leads to try to make the group photos have a connection with the award, so time for the run leads to be creative.
Special Items
We are investigating having some items in connection with the award and will have more news on this soon, like maybe special hoodies, enamel badges and mugs
E-Card
We have created this visual that we thought you might like to share the fab news – so feel free to share it on your Facebook page (other social media is available).
Add your own words, maybe like ‘I volunteer with Redway Runners and we have won this award’ ‘We support Ready Runners’ ‘Proud to be a member of Redway Runners’. Make sure you tag us as we would love to see them and let everyone know this amazing news
Remember to include:
#KAVS2024 @KingsAwardVS @RedwayRunners
Video Message
Club Video Message from the Club Chair, Martin Lawrence
– view at; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PUV8At3jQE
Longer Term
Will be talking now to the committee to make sure we develop this for the club and your benefit so including:
- Lisa for a celebration event
- Steve for club events and equipment
- Imitiaz so displayed across the club website
- Michelle for club runs
How did this come about?
About a year ago we got the great news that the club had been nominated for this award and we had been shortlisted
As a result of this, we had a site visit from the Lord Lieutenants office for Buckinghamshire, and we had to tell them about every aspect of the club, from this we had to send in a substantial amount of information, including many of our policies and processes. You may remember we did a member’s survey earlier this year, much of this was used to get your testimonials about the club – so we really appreciated all the great feedback we got, it really did help.
Only very recently did we hear that we had been successful, but with this news was the request that this had to kept confidential until the announcement day of 14 November 2024. Hence only a very few people who have directly working towards today’s announcement have known about this – it was far too important to let anything put this in jeopardy.
Breaking News Announcement
We first broke the news with this announcement to the world
Club Press Releases
To view the club press release click here (opens as a pdf)
These went out in advance of the news breaking with a strict embargo, not to be used till 14 November 2024
More Information about the Award
The Awards are part of the UK Honours system.
Every day, millions of people across the UK are making a difference by volunteering. Each year, outstanding examples of this work are celebrated through the King’s Award for Voluntary Service (KAVS).
Created in 2002 to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Golden Jubilee and previously known as The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service (QAVS), the Award has been shining a light on the fantastic work of voluntary groups from across the UK for many years.
Equivalent to an MBE, KAVS is the highest Award given to local voluntary groups in the UK, and they are awarded for life.
For information about the King’s Award for Voluntary Service go to
There were 281 voluntary organisations who received the award on the 14 November 2024 and this was the second year the awards had been granted by HM The King, you can see the full list at:
https://kavs.dcms.gov.uk/awardees/
The Gazette
The Gazette is the UK’s official public record, and the oldest continuously published newspaper, first published in 1665.
In being gazetted, our King’s Award for Voluntary Service has been published by authority and permanently recorded in The Gazette
You can purchase a Deluxe presentation pack – Certificate of Record £90.00 (includes VAT and postage) or Standard printed edition £17.70 (includes postage)
London Gazette issues a special edition more detail at:
https://www.thegazette.co.uk/all-notices/content/kings-award-for-voluntary-service
More about the special Gazette Commemorative edition click here (opens as a pdf)
Guidelines about the award
We are now able to use the Logo but there are strict rules about how we do this, so do please check before using on behalf of the club. The award in not individual MBE’s it is an award for Redway Runners.
Guidelines for using the words and the logos, link below but please check with us (rr@redwayrunners.com) before using them
https://kavs.dcms.gov.uk/the-kings-award-for-voluntary-service-emblem-guidelines/
Meet our Volunteers – The Run Leads
Many of our Volunteers are the Run Leads you can read about some of them at:
More information
For more information please mail Martin at rr@redwayrunners.com
What you said
Following the news that Redway Runners had been Granted the King’s Award for Voluntary Service on 14 November 2024, this is what you said when we broke the news on our Facebook page.
https://www.redwayrunners.com/kimgs-award-for-voluntary-service-what-you-said
Letter of Congratulations
We received a letter of congratulations from Chris Curtis, MP for Milton Keynes North, as below
And Finally
We cannot say it enough, thank you to all the volunteers this really is a major honour from the UK Honours system, of the work that we all do to make us the biggest, the best, the most fun, the most social, the best value running club in the world (Allegedly).
So next time you see a Redway Runners volunteer, leading runs, tail running, event staff or anyone who helps in any one of the other hundreds of ways for the club, congratulate them on the award and say, ‘Thank You’.
Hope to celebrate with you at Spoons on Friday night, see you for cake over the weekend
THANK YOU
Proud of everyone who help make the AWARD winning:
‘Redway Runners Run Milton Keynes’
#KAVS2024
@KingsAwardVS
