The Isle of Man Civil Defence Corps won the award for Supporting our Community at last year’s Isle of Man Newspapers’ Awards for Excellence.

It was their 70th year of supporting the community and the emergency services.

As a small island with limited resources to deal with severe weather or a major incident, Civil Defence personnel are deployed to support the emergency services when required.

The 45 volunteers who make up the service are on call 24/7, 365 days a year.

They train in all weathers to be able to assist with hill searches for lost and vulnerable people and to be able to provide first aid and the safe evacuation of casualties.

They also support a number of community events such as Race for Life, the Manx Mountain Marathon and the End2End races. In 2018 they contributed more than 5,800 volunteer hours to the island.

Michelle Sayle, who collected the award on behalf of the Civil Defence Corps, said: ’Being a volunteer with the Civil Defence is so rewarding.

’You get an opportunity to make a difference within the community during difficult times and also provide support for various events.’

And she added: ’Winning the award last year has boosted our profile massively in the island. We have new volunteers join us as a result of the publicity we received.

’All our volunteers were very appreciative for the recognition of years of service.’

l Many local charities, organisations and businesses have done outstanding work this year supporting our community.

Why not enter the Awards for Excellence and tell everyone about it?

As well as supporting our island this year’s awards offer a wide-range of award categories including Doing the Impossible During the Pandemic, Our Local Heroes, Protecting our Environment and Caring for the Island’s Wellbeing.

The awards are open to businesses of all sizes, individuals, charitable and cultural organisations and public sector teams and you can enter more than one category.

If you need advice about which category to enter and what makes a good entry you can call Trudi Williamson on 695694.

You can find full information and download entry forms at www.excellence-awards.im. Entries close on Friday, January 15.