Every year we hold a Volunteer Christmas Meal for all volunteers of Amelia Trust Farm. The meal is very kindly funded by the Huggard Charitable Trust.
This years Christmas meal was attended by over 40 volunteers, trustees, and staff. It was a lovely afternoon full of festive cheer, and a great way for us to thank our fabulous volunteers for all the hard work they do all year round.

Christmas Celebration
Our 2024 meal was held at The Three Horseshoes Country Inn where the pub provided a delicious Christmas dinner, along with beautiful festive decorations for all to enjoy. It really did feel like the start of the Christmas celebrations! As ever, the service was great and everyone was very impressed with the food and left with very full stomachs.
During our Volunteer Christmas meal, it’s a tradition to present our Volunteer of the Year award. The award celebrates a volunteer who has gone over and above to help our small charity. Choosing one single volunteer to receive the award is always very difficult as all of our volunteers do such a fantastic job and everyone is equally deserving of the accolade.
It is always hard to select just one volunteer when we are fortunate to have so many wonderful volunteers at Amelia Trust who help us with keeping the Farm looking so beautiful for all those who visit and benefit from our therapeutic space. We are grateful to all those who help maintain the grounds, the buildings, the animals, the woodlands and who also support us with fundraising and welcoming people to our new Community Café.
Karen Turnbull, Chief Executive Officer of Amelia Trust
Volunteer of the Year 2024
This year, our Volunteer of the Year award was presented to Tony. Tony has been involved in many aspects of life at Amelia Trust – most notably his hard work and dedication to creating new and exciting wooden crafts for our visitors to enjoy. Since starting to volunteer at the Farm, Tony has shared his infectious smile with everyone he sees and never fails to make people laugh.
The award was presented to Tony by our Chair of Trustees, Rev Dr Stephen Wigley.
Tony has been selected for his expertise and creativity which has been put to good use on many different projects at the Farm. His enthusiasm, initiative and flexibility has been much appreciated. Tony helps regularly in maintaining the woodlands, creating new trails for our visitors and also led the development of a new tepee in our play area which will give children the chance to use their imagination as they play. We want to encourage all of our visitors to get active outdoors, and we have seen how our wooden tepee encourages children to do just that thanks to the efforts of Tony.
Karen Turnbull, Chief Executive Officer of Amelia Trust

Heading into 2025
Our Volunteer Christmas meal was a lovely way to say goodbye to 2024 and look ahead to 2025. We can’t thank our volunteers enough for their hard work and dedication each year to allow us to continue our life changing work for the local community.
If you’d like to find out how you can get involved and volunteer with us, check out the Get Involved page of our website. To see regular updates about our animals, make sure you’re following us on Facebook and Instagram.