Pam Spall – Charity Champion or Volunteer of the Year nominee
Pam Spall – Charity Champion or Volunteer of the Year nominee
Pam Spall is still volunteering at the age of 83 after a lifetime dedicated to helping others and making serious community impact.
She can often be found working behind the reception desk at YMCA North Staffordshire where she is treated like everyone’s favourite gran.
Pam, from Alsager, began her volunteering decades ago when she started projects that have gone on to become Action Line and also Furniture Mine.
She has been nominated in the Charity Champion or Volunteer of the Year category of the Your Heroes Awards by Sharon Richards, Deputy CEO at YMCA North Staffordshire.
Sharon said: “Pam has spent a lifetime helping people in North Staffordshire and her commitment is as strong today as it has ever been.
“More than 30 years ago Pam ran Action Line, a not-for-profit social action broadcasting project on BBC Radio Stoke. Every hour it matched local people with the help and advice they needed and it received around 10,000 calls a year.
“When Pam saw that people could not move into new homes because they had no furniture she did not just make appeals on air, she brought local people together, secured funding from the council and helped set up Furniture Mine. That enterprise lives on today as the largest furniture and household charity shop in North Staffordshire, still tackling furniture poverty.
“For many years Pam has also volunteered at YMCA North Staffordshire and the young people we support love her. She turns up week after week, whatever challenges she is facing, bringing warmth, encouragement and a steady presence. Her consistency matters enormously. She shows our young people, by example, what it means to give your time freely and to care about your community.
“Pam keeps the volunteering spirit alive. She does not look for recognition, which is exactly why she deserves it. Her legacy can be seen across Stoke-on-Trent, in the services she helped create and the lives she continues to touch. I can think of no one more deserving of Volunteer of the Year.”
Alongside her volunteering, Pam is a member of Alsager’s Can’t Sing Choir.
She said: “It’s just things I enjoy doing. I like to speak to people and have a bit of a laugh because the alternative is you ruin your life. I like talking to people and my husband is really deaf so he’s not much of a talker.
“I would recommend volunteering to anyone. You pick up so many skills.”