As the days are getting longer, our optimism is on the rise. The pandemic and lockdown have been hard for everyone. Yet, there are positive story’s that have emerged from it. One of them is of Tim Sai Louie, a Westway CT volunteer. Tim has just won the 2021 Kensington and Chelsea (K&C) Mayor’s award for his amazing individual contribution.
The Mayor’s Award
Kensington and Chelsea Mayor’s office awards the Mayor’s award to individuals who have “gone over, above and beyond to serve the community and who have made a significant difference to the lives of our borough’s residents.”
This year the 2021 mayor’s award introduced three new categories for the award: Individual Contribution, Local Community Organisation and Coronavirus Response.
Tim’s nomination for the 2021 Mayor’s Award
Since joining us as a volunteer car driver in August 2020, Tim has gone the extra mile to help Westway CT and its members. We nominated him along with Age UK Kensington and Chelsea for the award due to amount of volunteering he has been doing for both charities.
Before the first lockdown, Tim made himself regularly available to help elderly Westway CT members to appointments, classes and other destinations they couldn’t get to by themselves. When lockdown took effect, and we suspended volunteer cars to protect members. Tim readily helped in our efforts to help feed the community through food drops and delivering food to food banks.
Tim did not confine his efforts in helping the community to working just with Westway CT. He has also volunteered with Age UK K&C to deliver food parcels to vulnerable elderly who were shielding.
At present Tim is donating an enormous amount of his time to help the community. On Tuesday and Friday, he drives a Westway CT vehicle to deliver many food parcels for Hammersmith and Fulham food bank to residents of the borough. Not content with that, Tim also helps the Urban Community Project food bank in Kings Cross. Every Monday he drives to Waitrose in Euston to collect food donations to take to the food bank.
Tim’s Efforts Have Not Dropped Even As Lockdown Approaches Its End.
Finally, as lockdown has entered its first stage of easing, he has resumed his work for volunteer cars. For one member, he takes her to see her husband who lives in a care home. Like many people, Lockdown prevented her from seeing him. Here Tim’s flexibility with his time allows her to have extra time with her husband, as Tim will wait for as long as she needs. It is this compassion that elevates Tim’s volunteering to another level.
Tim’s efforts have also seen him do weekend shifts for us during the lockdown, using our goods van to deliver 2 tonnes of food to Euston Foodbank. In addition, he has also volunteered as a steward at the Covid Vaccination Centre at St Mary’s hospital and is also secretary and regularly leads walks for Capital Walkers Ramblers . This extra volunteering is just one reason of many of why we jointly nominated Tim for this award alongside Age UK K&C.
We are truly grateful to Tim for all his efforts, and we were proud that he has won the award that he thoroughly deserves. Well done, Tim, and thank you for your fantastic work.
Can You Help Us Fight Loneliness And Isolation?
We are always looking for more volunteers. Want to give back to the community? Fill in our contact form below or on our volunteers page and we will get in touch with you about how you can help.
