The awards are organised by the Centre for Volunteering and recognise the outstanding efforts of volunteers working across all sections of communities throughout the State.

Read more: Le Tour de Taree volunteers from Club Taree were named 2020 Volunteer Team of the Year

"In a period of pandemic, natural disaster and insecurity, Club Taree community team continued their commitment to making a positive difference to their community," the Centre for Volunteering said.

"For months team members worked with the Cancer Council to ferry local and regional cancer patients to treatment in a COVID safe way.

"During the devastating March floods, the team worked at the evacuation centre for six days, despite their own losses."

In 2020 their signature fundraising event, le Tour de Taree was originally cancelled due to COVID regulations, however later ran raising $39,000 and more than $50,000 in 2021 .

"The past 12 months have been tough for all of us, but volunteers have continued to dig deep to support their local communities through this adversity," Gemma Rygate, CEO of the Centre for Volunteering, said.

The Mid North Coast award winners for individual and team categories are:

The five-driver Vinnies Hastings team moves donated goods for Vinnies in the Mid North Coast. The drivers kept supporting the local community and Vinnies during bushfires, COVID and floods and were quick to help beyond their usual rosters. When the Taree shop was inundated in March they jumped into the clean up and moved rubbish to the tip. They have been able to reduce the cost of waste disposal by 40 per cent and double van runs.

The announcement came after the release of the inaugural NSW State of Volunteering Report, which found that volunteers contribute more than $127 billion to NSW in social and economic benefits annually.

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