THE community-minded trio behind Wilsden Youth Volunteers have been selected as the winner of the Outstanding Student of the Year Award.

Beatrice Overend, Emily Overend and Eleanor Monoghan set up the scheme after helping out at a different project throughout the first lockdown.

In a joint statement, the girls described feeling "honoured" by the win and that Wilsden Youth Vounteers was "set up BY the youth, FOR the youth".

The group hope to inspire more young people to get involved and - one day - follow in their footsteps as leaders of the organisation.

The trio told the Telegraph & Argus: "It is such a privilege to have won the Student Community Star Award. We feel honoured that our community has voted for us and appreciates the work we have been doing.

"All our volunteers are between 16-25. We noticed that during the Covid 19 pandemic, there were a lot of young people out of work, and we wanted to provide opportunities for them, and give them an answer for the inevitable interview question ‘So what did you do during the Covid 19 pandemic?’

"Volunteering teaches many transferable skills which will help young people as they begin to apply for further studies and jobs. We have enjoyed running the scheme as it has given us a great opportunity to help our local community while helping our fellow peers grow as individuals.

"The aim of Wilsden Youth Volunteer Scheme is to inspire young people help their community. We hope through our scheme we can give them a purpose to help boost wellbeing while allowing them to show they are an asset to our community.

"We started the Wilsden Youth Volunteer Scheme during the first lockdown to provide opportunities for the young people in our village. We want to continue providing opportunities for our volunteers, as well as making sure the wider community can benefit from the projects we run."

The scheme provides opportunities for young people to learn new skills whilst helping out the village community. Fundraising projects included a 2021 calendar, which used photos from the trio's photography competition, as well as a £1,000 fund for the village hall youth area.

The group also created the Wilsden Wiggle - encouraging the community to run, walk or cycle in January - raised money for the charity MIND.

The group also created a penpal scheme to create a connection between younger and older generations.

Future projects include an Ecobricks project as part of the village's efforts to save the environment. An Ecobrick is a plastic bottle packed tight with used plastic to make a reusable building block.

Once the trio have enough Ecobricks, they plan to build a planter full of herbs for locals to freshly pick.

The scheme has just received funding to run a Mental Health First Aid course and also hopes to run a fundraising car wash.