VOLUNTEERS will be under the spotlight as part of a project to celebrate 50 years of a wildlife group.

Worcestershire Wildlife Trust is celebrating its 50th birthday on Wednesday March 28 and has received £9,500 from the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) for a project to mark this anniversary.

Made possible by money raised by National Lottery players, the project will focus on stories from the organisation’s volunteers.

The charity was set up in 1968 by a handful of volunteers and now has almost 400 volunteers supporting its work right across Worcestershire.

Mike Perry, head of resources, said: “Our volunteers are central to the success of our work; they come from a variety of backgrounds and take on a variety of roles from caring for our nature reserves to inspiring the next generation and staffing our reception.

“Each volunteer brings a range of skills to the trust and they have different reasons for getting involved but all have our common aim of working towards the protection of our natural environment.

“With so many stories from so many people over the last 50 years, what better time than now to try and capture some of our history. We want to create a resource that will enable people of all ages to learn from and be inspired by these wonderful people.”

The trust is working with local oral history producer Julia Letts to develop the project to collect and share the stories, motivations and memories of at least 20 volunteers over twelve months.

She will also train and support a group of volunteers so that they can undertake their own oral history interviews.

The interviews will eventually be stored at the Worcestershire Record Office at The Hive library in Worcester in order to be available to future researchers and members of the public.

The first interviewee is Harry Green MBE of Little Comberton who joined the trust’s council as a volunteer trustee in 1969 and is still on it.

Mr Perry continued: “We’ve got such a rich history of volunteer involvement with the Trust; volunteers ran the charity without a member of staff being appointed for the first few years, for example.

“We’ll be interviewing those involved with the establishment of the Trust as well as newer and younger volunteers to make sure that we understand how involvement with the Trust has changed over time.

“In addition to our volunteers, we’ll aim to record snapshots of people’s thoughts about wildlife and volunteering at public events as well as working with schools to record groups of children talking about their experiences of wildlife and what can be done to protect it.”

For more information about the work of the trust visit www.worcswildlifetrust.co.uk