Guide Dogs for the Blind Celebrates 80 Years of Partnerships
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October 6, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
Guide Dogs for the Blind Association is celebrating the anniversary of their first guide dog partnership over 80 years ago.
The charity is holding celebrations to commemorate their first guide dog partnership, which all began from a lock up garage in Merseyside.
After 80 years, the charity is celebrating its many guide dog partnerships, which have helped over 29,000 people gain independence, as well as looking forward to their future achievements.
Alongside their campaign ‘Go for 80’, which has set supporters the challenge of either raising awareness of the charity by telling 80 people, saying 80 words, or raising £80 amongst other things, the first new Guide Dogs National Breeding Centre was also officially opened on Tuesday by the Patron of the charity, HRH Princess Alexandra.
Alongside increasing the number of guide dog partnerships, with the help of their new breeding centre, the charity is also looking to expand its services with a new scheme called ‘Buddy Dogs’, which partners dogs with partially sighted children and young people to enable them to build crucial mobility and communicative skills, as well as helping them to prepare for a guide dog in the future.
In addition, they are also looking to develop new services over the next five years for people who might not be suited to having a guide dog by pairing them up with people from their local area to be sight guides.
After 80 years and still reaching for ever larger milestones, when asked by The Fresh Outlook about the most important aspects which have helped the charity to survive for so long, a spokesperson from the charity said: “I think there are three things that are fundamental for us to deliver the life-changing service that we give, one definitely being funding, as we recognise in the current economic climate that government funding isn’t likely, volunteers to help with aspects of guide dog training such as ‘puppy walking’, and also our campaigns, like our efforts to reduce the number of attacks on guide dogs, which is totally unacceptable, by trying to enforce the compulsory micro chipping of dogs.”
Looking back to when it all began with Britain’s four pioneering guide dogs; Flash, Meta, Folly and Judy, she added: “Who knows what the next 80 years will bring!”
For more information about events happening this week or how you can get involved please visit the Guide Dogs for the Bind Association’s website: www.guidedogs.org.uk
By Laura Beard
[Image courtesy of the Guide Dogs for the Blind Association]
