On Tuesday 30th April, Leicestershire and Rutland Rugby Union hosted over 30 hard working volunteers from across the grassroots rugby clubs in our CB for the Honda Volunteer of the Year awards.

Volunteers were nominated by club members to show their appreciation for the dedication their club volunteers have to the running of their clubs. Leicestershire had 35 people nominated with all but three, joining us at the County Cup finals at Mattioli Woods Welford Road to watch both the colts and senior men’s finals from The Clubhouse with hospitality.

Once the colts final had concluded, volunteers were gathered to be presented with a framed certificate, engraved tumbler and Honda gift, from rugby legend and Leicestershire man, Peter Wheeler CBE. 

The awards were separated into categories; Unsung Hero(es), Game for All and Connecting the Community. The majority of the awards were in the Unsung Hero category and from all the nominees, three were selected by the Executive Committee to be shortlisted for the National Final at Twickenham in September. 

The shortlisted volunteers were:
Jon Foster, Oakham RFC & LRU
Graham Vaux, Loughborough RFC
Amie Smith & Laura Jones, Sileby RFC

The overall winners for Leicestershire and Rutland were Amie and Laura from Sileby RFC. This is a snippet from their nomination:

They worked tirelessly to restore our clubhouse after we suffered a catastrophic flood due to a burst water pipe during the cold snap of December 2022, which forced us to use other rugby grounds for the second half of last season. They dedicated several hours (after work) every day for a number of weeks to get our clubhouse not only repaired, but looking even better than it was before. They painted, cleaned, dried, washed and repaired every surface – you name it, they did it. Their efforts have truly been an inspiration to the whole club.
They’re the first at the Clubhouse to open up and last to leave, cleaning up after both Women’s and Men’s team. They organise the catering supplies, the transport to away fixtures and continually push to promote our tiny grassroots club. During the school summer holidays, they helped provide rugby coaching sessions to the local school children as part of a summer play scheme. Both women are integral in the organisation of the Annual Truck pull, raising money for local charities.
They’ve almost single-handedly kept the Sileby Women’s rugby team playing and deserve recognition of their time and effort.

Congratulations to Amie and Laura who will be heading to Twickenham in September for the National Awards. We wish them the best of luck.

Congratulations to all the hard working volunteers who without, we would not have our clubs running. Make sure you say a quick thank you to them next time you see them behind the bar, in the kitchen, on the mower or emptying the bins. 

Here are some photos from the evening. Click on the image to view, then click on the image again to enlarge