Thanks to her good works, a Newton Abbot College student had won a highly sought after royal award for the second time. Louise Endean is a year twelve student at the college and she was invited to take the trip to St James’ Palace, London, where she was given the Diana Award, recognising all the voluntary work she’d done.
Louise had a chance to meet with other recipients of the award from all around the world and sat in to watch a presentation by Prince Harry, Prince William and the chief executive of the award, Tessy Ojo. Princess Diana, the late princess of Wales held the belief that young people have the power to make the world a better place and the Diana Awarded was started as a legacy to that belief. The award has been handed out to 45,000 young people since it was started back in 1999 in recognition of their extraordinary work in their communities.
The award targets individuals who’ve show service, compassion and kindness in their work. Louise has been working within her community, volunteering for the Seven Cups of Tea, a free online counselling service. In her line of work, she has assisted many young people dealing with a wide range of issues including school bullying, LGBT issues and give advice to those who need it. She also volunteers for Help for Heroes and is a regular visitor at the Plymouth recovery centre which assists injured veterans. She goes there to give the residents some company or to offer a listening ear when needed.
Louise was a member of Newton Abbot College’s anti-bullying team which was also presented with a Diana Award earlier. The anti-bullying work done at the college led to it being chosen as a national showcase. The Great Western Railway has been a great supporter of the anti-bullying work done in the college for a number of years and they are the ones who donated the train tickets to Louise so she could attend the event.
Louise said that it was quite amazing to be a recipient of the award and she had already spoken to the organisation regarding future volunteering opportunities. She was quite happy to have her efforts publicly recognised. She also stated that the college has a strong culture when it comes to volunteering and speaking out against bullying and she is happy to have been able to continue the work she was doing and also work in new areas.