When the Ladies Group recommenced the speaker for our first meeting was from our charity for the year, Canine Partners for Independence. This charity provides dogs to enable severely disabled people to lead more independent lives. The dogs initially live with a puppy walker for a year and then they have several months intensive specialist training, when they are taught up to 90 commands, before being placed with a disabled person.
They carry out a wide range of tasks such as opening doors, carrying shopping, taking laundry out of a washing machine and fetching a cordless telephone. One severely handicapped young man overturned his wheelchair in his home and was able to call for assistance with the aid of his dog taking his telephone to him.
A lady who is a puppy walker brought her labrador puppy, Grace, to the meeting and she proved a great favourite with everyone.
This charity is based at Hayling and provides dogs for people in this area and at present 15 working dogs and a further 30 are in training - it costs around £5,000 to train one dog. It relies totally on donations and having heard how these dogs can transform a handicapped person's life we hope to raise a lot of money for them this year.
We had a large audience when by popular request the Dickensian Singers, a group of retired ladies and gentlemen, came to entertain us again. First of all we went round the world in song with such numbers as Isle of Capri and Mexico Way. We enjoyed several diverse solo items, amongst them a lovely rendition of Vilia from the Merry Widow and the amusing Irish song Paddy McGinty's Goat.
Their excellent compere kept us amused with his jokes and invited everyone to join in the singing. The audience needed no second bidding and sang enthusiastically old and new melodies. At the end of a lovely evening we were delighted to find we had collected £40 for them which they will give to a charity.
written by St George's Ladies Group
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