Larne pupil part of Queen’s Award-winning charity team

As a volunteer with East Belfast Mission, Kaitlin Nelson (Year 13), was part of the team who recently received the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Services.

The award recognises the exceptional work of volunteer groups in their communities. During the selection process, charities are nominated by the general public. This year, thousands of charities were nominated and the East Belfast Mission saw the highest number of nominations it has ever received.

The East Belfast Mission was set up to combat the extreme poverty that exists in areas of East Belfast and help people in a variety of ways.

Kaitlin has worked with the charity for three years, volunteering every Saturday at Larne Restore. This includes processing donated items, operating the tills, cleaning the shop and updating the social media profiles.

She also selflessly dedicates time throughout the school holidays in pursuit of helping people throughout her local community including organising a coffee morning to raise vital funds for the charity.

Kaitlin, who joined Larne colleagues, Mandy, Jenny, Chris and store manager, Susan Rea, at the awards ceremony, said: “During the ceremony we got to hear the personal experiences that many of our volunteers have had over their years with the charity.

“We heard the story of a particular young woman whose life has personally been improved by the organisation and how she came from a broken home and is now on her way to becoming a qualified social worker - without the help and support from EBM that wouldn’t have been possible.”