Volunteers from the Cinnamon Trust in Solihull have been recognised as some of the UK’s top unsung volunteering heroes, and nominated for a prestigious award to be made at a ceremony at Lancaster House, St James in London next month (11 March).

The Cinnamon Trust is one of two finalists in the Most Innovative Activity category at volunteering charity CSV’s annual Make a Difference Day Awards.

CSV’s President, Lord Levy will be presiding over the ceremony, to be attended by celebrities, MPs and national charities, who support and benefit from CSV Make a Difference Day. Top names supporting the 2003 campaign included Peter Waterman, Charlie Dimmock, Ainsley Harriott and Atomic Kitten.

Organised by CSV (Community Service Volunteers) and supported by Barclays community investment programme, CSV Make Difference Day is now the UK’s biggest day of ‘hands on’ volunteering - asking everyone to give ‘time not money’ for just one day and make a real difference to their communities. A record-breaking 88,000 people took part in 2003, including 5500 volunteers in the Midlands. Volunteers turned local wasteland into park’s set up recycling projects, revamped youth centres, took older people supplies for winter and tackled bullying in schools, as well as many other activities improving local communities.

The Cinnamon Trust, a charity that helps terminally ill and elderly people stay with their pets used CSV Make a Difference Day to hold a fun dog show that would raise awareness of their work and recruit more volunteers. The activity was attended by over 200 people from the Solihull area along with 71 dogs. Dogs were awarded prizes in 6 different categories, including ‘Waggiest Tail’, ‘Prettiest Bitch’ and ‘Most Appealing Eyes’ by Solihull MP John Taylor.

As a result of the CSV Make a Difference Day activity, The Cinnamon Trust have been able to link up with the Solihull charity, Age Safe and Solihull Social Services enabling them to help even more elderly and terminally ill people in the community.

Activity Organiser Pat Sanderson says: “The event was great fun. The dogs got loads of attention and the phone hasn’t stopped ringing since with people wanting to find out more about our organisation.

An awards panel, made up of representatives from the media, commercial and voluntary sectors, will choose the winner - to be announced on the night!

This year CSV Make a Difference Day with Barclays takes place on Saturday 30 October and promises to be the biggest and best yet. To find out more about\ taking part, call free on 0800 284 533 or visit www.csv.org.uk/difference