The volunteer Coastguard Rescue Service have been honoured with an accolade dubbed the ‘MBE for community voluntary groups’.

The service, which is part of Her Majestys
Coastguard, has scooped The Queens Diamond Jubilee Volunteering
Award 2012.

As a one-off category of the Queens Award for Voluntary Service, the special accolade seeks to recognise groups that operate nationwide.

The Queens Award for Voluntary Service, which was set up in 2002, usually recognises the work of
grassroots organisations at a local level.

The Coastguard Rescue Service provides the UK’s coastal search and rescue
capability including cliff, mud and shoreline rescue and, as part of HM Coastguard, either alongside other
emergency services and volunteer rescue organisations or separately.

Its teams of volunteers, drawn from
the local community, are fully trained and equipped to carry out a
range of search and rescue operations around the coast of the UK.

The Coastguard Rescue Service consists of 3,500 volunteers in 365
Coastguard Rescue Teams strategically located around the coast of the UK
and play a vital role in helping the Maritime & Coastguard Agency,
through HM Coastguard, achieve its vision of being a
world-class organisation that is committed to preventing loss of life,
improving maritime safety, and protecting the marine environment.

Coastguard Rescue Officers can be called out by the Maritime Rescue
Co-ordination Centre at any time of the day or night, in all
weathers, to respond to and rescue those in trouble or missing or to
participate in a multi-agency response to an emergency.

Peter Dymond, Chief Coastguard said: ‘I am delighted that the Coastguard Rescue Service has received this
award which is a just reward and recognition for our volunteer
Coastguard Rescue Officers and their teams who have a long history of
rescuing those in trouble from shipwreck or those stuck or missing on
the cliffs and shoreline of the UK and not forgetting their service to
their local communities and the wider public.’

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