Buddy ‘humbled’ by top RNLI award

WELL DESERVED?Buddy Valkenburg, Ballyglass Station Branch who was presented with an Honorary Life Governor award by RNLI Chairman Mr Charles Hunter-Pease. The RNLI Annual Presentation of Awards 2014 - Ireland took place in Farmleigh House, Dublin on Saturday. ?
Pic: Margaret Brown

Buddy ‘humbled’ by top RNLI award


Anton McNulty

Belmullet man Buddy Valkenburg says he was ‘humbled’ to be awarded with the highest RNLI award to be bestowed on an individual for his many years of service to the Institution.
Retired businessman, Buddy Valkenburg of the Ballyglass lifeboat was awarded with the RNLI Honorary Life Governor Award at the RNLI Annual Presentation of Awards ceremony in Farmleigh House on Saturday afternoon.
The special ceremony also marked the 190th anniversary of the RNLI and the awards recognise fundraising and operational volunteers from across Ireland for their role in raising funds and awareness for the RNLI.
Sixty-one RNLI volunteers from all over Ireland were presented with awards at the ceremony with three other Mayo RNLI volunteers also receiving awards
However the Honorary Life Governor Award is the highest honour that the RNLI can bestow on volunteers and only given to exceptional individuals.
At the RNLI ceremony, Mr Valkenburg was described as a ‘inspirational character’ who gave many years to the Institution long before the lifeboat was placed in Ballyglass in 1989.
Speaking to The Mayo News, Mr Valkenburg said he was humbled to be presented with such an award.
“I was very humbled. I was told about it a month ago and I was shocked and surprised because there are more deserving people to it than I,” he said.
Mr Valkenburg was one of the people who was instrumental to the establishment of the Ballyglass lifeboat station in 1989 when there was no station between Sligo and the Aran Islands.
“I was involved in sea angling and saw the necessity of having a boat in the area. We had already built up a good relationship [with the RNLI] and when they visited us they said ‘yes there should be one’. The public are very good to us regarding fundraising and they see the necessity of the boat and the good it is doing.”
Other recipients from Mayo who received awards art the ceremony were Harry McCallum, the Ballyglass RNLI Lifeboat Operations Manager, Nora Mai Walsh from Ballyglass RNLI and Tony McNamara from Achill Island RNLI.
Mr McCallum received Inscribed Binoculars for his many years of service with Ballyglass RNLI where he served as Deputy Launching Authority before taking on his current role.
Nora Mai Walsh received a Silver Badge for her ‘staunch support’ of the Ballyglass branch since its inception. She is ever present on Heritage Day selling coffee and at Church Gate collections regardless of the weather and has instilled ‘a love of all that the RNLI stands for, in her family and now in her grandchildren’.
Tony McNamara, who was a member of the Ballyglass lifeboat and served as a crew member, second Coxswain and later became the Lifeboat Operations Manager, before moving back to his native Achill, received an Inscribed Statuette. Having moved back to Achill he joined the Operations Team as Deputy Launching Authority and his near 20 years experience was described as making him ‘most deserving of the award’.