September 2014 Newsletter Sainsbury charity of the year - fun day Over the past five years, local Sainsbury s stores have partnered with local charities and raised over 6 million. This year, Sainsbury s supermarket in Bretton selected Peterborough Association for the Blind as their charity of the year! There was tough competition from other local charities this year so PAB was thrilled to receive the good news. It means that we will receive essential promoting throughout the year including Vanessa Shepherd from Sainsbury s who will enter in the Great Eastern Run on behalf of the PAB! To celebrate, the launch event was held in store on Friday 1st August. As usual, our members and volunteers responded to the call for people to bag pack in the shop. To create maximum awareness and impact, we set up our information boards in the foyer and had volunteers on hand to give advice or promote the charity. Sainsbury s staff also came up trumps by volunteering to help in their own time and by helping to collect prizes for the tombola. Our Clown (Dale from the supermarket staff) with Chelsea (Dale s long suffering sister) spent their time entertaining children and working the Sweets for Aunty game that attracted many of the youngsters and their parents. They were great at encouraging parents to give up a few pennies for our charityinside the supermarket volunteers worked tirelessly to pack bags of very willing customers. It was hard work but a real fun day and we made 852!
The next event at Sainsbury's will be on Sunday 5th October when there will be a Quiz Night. The proceeds, 1 per person, will all go to PAB. Sainsburys provide nibbles and you can bring your own drinks. It starts at 7 pm in the Canteen at Sainsburys Bretton. Please bring friends and family to make this evening a success. Strawberry Fair and Street Collection PAB's Strawberry Fair in June was well supported and raised 602.52. The weather on the day of the street collection in the City Centre, August 2nd, was not very good, but we still raised 268 and had the opportunity to speak to passers by about PAB's activities. Vote for PAB! We've been shortlisted for a Lloyds Bank Community Fund Award, in which we could receive a grant of up to 3,000. This award would make a huge difference to us, enabling us to provide information packs for people newly diagnosed with sight loss. We need your support as PAB is competing against 3 other charities for the money, and the one which gets the most votes will receive the biggest grant! Voting opens at 9 am on 2nd September and finishes on Friday 10th October. Anyone can vote so please ask your friends and family to vote too! There are 4 ways to vote (with one vote per option): 1) Online at www.lloydsbank.com/communityfund. Search for the Peterborough Association for the Blind page and click the 'Vote for us' button. Enter your name and email address, then press 'submit vote'. You will then be sent an email from the Community Fund asking you to confirm your vote by clicking on the link provided.
2) By text - text VOTE PRH to 61119 (leave a space between VOTE and PRH). Texts will only be charged at your mobile network operator's standard message rate. 3) By twitter - Tweet #COMMFUND PRH (be sure to leave a space between #COMMFUND and PRH). Alternatively, visit the Community Fund Website and click on the Vote for us button to auto populate a tweet that your followers can retweet to cast their votes too! 4) At a Lloyds branch - visit Lloyds bank in Bretton, Old Fletton or Westgate, and ask a member of staff for a voting token to place in PAB's voting box. Low Vision Day Peterborough's successful Low Vision Day is back this year on Tuesday 23rd September at the Westgate Church complex. This is your chance to find out more about what clubs, activities and support are available locally and nationally. You don't need to book, and it's free. You'll find more details in the leaflet that you'll receive with your newsletter, or look on mypab.org.uk/lowvision. Walks on Wednesdays Following on from the success of the recent "Walks on Wednesdays" at Ferry Meadows, Disability Peterborough's partners at City College have kindly agreed to sponsor another 10 week programme beginning mid September (date TBC). The walks are designed to encourage people with physical disabilities or other long term medical conditions to get out of the house, improve fitness and health and well being. Together with volunteer walkers and guides from City College, participants can have a brisk stroll around the park or a gentle amble around the lake. Volunteers are there to help and support.
Each walk is finished off with all participants receiving complimentary coffee/tea and cake in one of the Ferry Meadows cafes. In some cases volunteer drivers can be provided. In the event of poor weather, the walks might be replaced by a morning at, for example, the Cathedral or Museum followed by coffee and cake. Before confirming dates Disability Peterborough need to get an idea of numbers. If you would like to be involved in the September walks, contact Bryan Tyler, Disability Forum Manager on 01733 265551. Coffee Mornings - Diary Dates Coffee mornings are held every 2 nd and 4 th Wednesday of the month at St. Peter & All Souls Church Hall, Fitzwilliam Street, Peterborough, 10.30 am - 12.00 noon. Future dates for your diary are: Wednesday 10th September Wednesday 24th September Wednesday 8th October Wednesday 22th October Wednesday 12th November Wednesday 26th November Wednesday 10 December: Christmas special! Spending Area for Assistance Dogs at Peterborough City Hospital When you are blind or partially sighted and using a guide dog, attending appointments can be especially worrying unless you know your guide dog can relieve itself. Peterborough City Hospital have listened to and acted on peoples' concern. A spending area for assistance dogs has been completed and is open for business! Situated to the rear of Peterborough City Hospital campus between the doctors houses and the Robert Horrell Centre, it will be inspected and disinfected on a regular basis by the grounds maintenance team. PCH have provided this facility to help service users, visitors and staff members
who have the support of an assistance dog this includes people with a wide range of disabilities and will greatly improve their access to their services. Summer outing On a lovely sunny day 20 of us left Westgate prepared for a day in Spalding. The trip was part funded by a donation from Asda's Community Fund and was greatly enjoyed by everyone. Some ventured onto the Spalding Water Taxi for a foray into Spalding and were treated to a lovely peaceful ride along the Coronation Channel and the River Welland which was alive with bird life. Those who stayed at Springfields returned to the bus laden with shopping bags of all sizes, loaded onto to the coach by Sean, our Grettons driver, who looked after us very well. We all said our goodbyes in Westgate at 4.30 with requests to repeat the trip for Christmas shopping! Peterborough Deafblind Club Peterborough Deafblind Club have a programme of activities, and PAB members are free to join in with any of the events. If you are interested in any of the events below and would like more information, please contact Peter Skivington on 01733 322584. Tuesday 9 September : Bingo ( 3) Wednesday 24 September: Trip to Cambridge ( 5-8) Tuesday 7 October: Cheese & Wine evening (6.30-9.00pm. 5) Tuesday 21 October: Bingo ( 3) Tuesday 4 November: Guy Fawkes Evening with Bingo Tuesday 18 November: Bingo ( 3) Wednesday 26 November: Trip to Bedford (10am-4pm ( 5-8) Thursday 11 December: Christmas Meal For Sale One Optelec Clearview+ Black & White reader, complete with adjustable table. Only one year old, hardly used. Half Price 850. For more info, please contact Mr G Broom 01733235211.
A chance to try Carpet Bowls Carpet Bowls sessions take place on Wednesdays at 2.45 at: Paston & Gunthorpe Community Centre, Hallfields Lane, Paston. Games last 2 hours, and the cost per session is 1.35 per session with an annual members' fee of 2.00. For more information please contact the hall on 01733 322741. Localgiving Localgiving is launching its Grow Your Tenner campaign again this year. Throughout the campaign Localgiving will match onetime donations pound-for-pound up to 10. This means that, if the donation if gift-aided, a donations of 10 made through localgiving during the campaign will generate 21.54 for PAB. Find out more at http://localgiving.com/charity/mypab 200+ Club Thank you for your continuing support of the 200+ Club, which funds this newsletter. We welcome new applications, so please do recommend the 200+ Club to all your friends and relations. We congratulate our lucky winners: 11 June Miss D Nicholl 100 9 July Mrs E Beaver 50 Barbara Talbot 30 Mr Derek Hayward 20 13 August John Allen 50 Mandy Thompson 30 Josephine Rose 20 Best wishes from the PAB committee Peterborough Association for the Blind Centre 68, 68b Westgate, Peterborough, PE1 1RG Tel: 01733 344 844