IT’S amazing how fast time flies: I can’t believe it’s a year since the last Volunteers’ Week.

Volunteers’ Week 2017 (which is from June 1 – 7) celebrates the contribution made by millions of volunteers across the UK.

This year it is even more special for us after we heard that we, along with nine other Oxfordshire charities, have been nominated for the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

The award was created by The Queen in 2002 to mark the occasion of her Golden Jubilee, recognising excellence in voluntary activities carried out by groups in the community.

It is the MBE for volunteer groups and we are delighted to be nominated.

There is lots of information on the Volunteers’ Week website about events around the area and we are participating on Saturday, June 3.

We couldn’t run Didcot Railway Centre without our volunteers and my favourite TripAdvisor reviews are the ones where our – and their – enthusiasm for the Railway Centre has come over.

Anyone interested in volunteering can come along on June 3 to see what it is all about.

The trains will be running – staffed by volunteers of course – and there will be a chance to ride in the cab of our diesel engine as an added incentive.

As last year, anyone signing up will be able to help at the following day’s transport rally and at events later in the year.

This year we especially looking for volunteers in our ‘front of house’ positions and operating staff.

Our shop is a 100 per cent voluntary operation and we want to keep it that way to make sure that all our profits go towards developing Didcot Railway Centre.

We are coming up to our busy period when we are open seven days a week so it would be great to have more volunteers in the shop team for the summer.

A few extra people helping us out for a day a week would make all the difference.

Volunteer members who are interested in operating the trains can join our operating staff as shunters (the starting grade for drivers), station masters (the starting grade for guards), signallers or duty managers.

We are also looking for volunteers to help with marketing, publicity, education, interpretation, gardening, painting, restoration of engines, carriages and wagons, civil engineering, documentation, policy development, conservation, photography and much much more.

Find out more at didcotrailwaycentre.org.uk or come down on June 3.