At our AGM in November 2024, we awarded Honorary Memberships to three of our dedicated volunteers who have contributed significantly to the Trust's work and mission. This Volunteers Week, we'd like to spread the word about their fantastic efforts! 

Philip Gorton:

Philip has been a volunteer since 2011. During that time, Phil has acted as Voluntary Warden at Pucks Oak Barn and orchard, a beautiful McAlmont Reserve, for many years keeping the scrub in check, the orchard mowed, the paths clear, and the site safe. He has volunteered tirelessly and quietly maintaining the orchard trees, selecting and nurturing many himself, and going on training to aid his delivery of this work.

He has been a pivotal part of keeping the community engaged over the years without any request for fanfare, and the site is an important one for the people of Compton and surrounding villages as well as for the countless visitors coming through the doors of the barn for events.

No matter what he has going on in his day-to-day life he somehow juggles that with retaining oversight for us. To us, Phil epitomises everything wonderful about our Voluntary Warden roles, and we couldn’t have done it without him.

Jane Saunders:

Jane became a member of the Trust in 2011 and started as a volunteer 2016. During that time, Jane has volunteered for the planning team and helped as a practical conservation volunteer, with Reserves Management.

Whilst with the planning team, Jane helped with the vast quantity of planning applications received from Local Authorities, helping to process them into our system so that we could deal with them in a timely manner. There were a great many of them and Jane was great at helping the team in getting through the workload.

In 2023, Jane joined the membership team and currently volunteers one full day per week. Whist volunteering for the membership team, Jane has been cleaning up the database and calling members to reactivate them after they have lapsed, with a brilliant success rate. Jane’s attention to detail and phone manor are exemplary. Jane is highly proficient with excel and creating accurate data analysis to enable us to measure her work. Jane also willingly pitches in to make 150 membership packs each week and makes up adoption boxes when required.

We could not be without her and are very grateful that she gives us her precious time. Jane is a true asset to Surrey Wildlife Trust.

David Cocovini:

David has been a volunteer with Surrey Wildlife Trust for 18 years now, giving his tireless and joyful support to multiple sites in the Central area. Notably, he acts as a Voluntary Warden for Cucknell's Wood where he has volunteered for years on everything from coppicing and infrastructure repairs to invasives removal and community engagement.

At Pewley Meadows he volunteers with the Friends of Group to deliver even more exceptional community engagement and oversight to a beautiful chalk grassland reserve in the middle of busy Guildford, dealing with stakeholder liaison, leading volunteer tasks, and various physical tasks with nothing but a smile on his face and unwavering enthusiasm.

He tackles all the things we ask of him with skill and good humour. David organises other volunteers to get the work done and makes sure everyone enjoys the day and learns about our chalkland meadows. He is a delightful person who the team adore spending time with. We truly value him and appreciate all his hard work. 

We simply could not achieve all we do without the dedication, hard work and passion of all our fabulous volunteers across the Trust. From everyone at SWT, we extend a huge thank you to Phil, Jane, David and all of our generous volunteers.