Spring is in the air! I, along with all my four-legged friends, love this time of the year when we can all stop and smell the flowers.
Since the last newsletter in July, Lindy and I have:
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- Attended the Launch of the Guide Dogs Puppy Raising Program in Canberra; [feature image of me passing on tips to a three-month-old puppy]
- Spoken at Seniors Morning Teas;
- Listened to music at mid-day at Canberra Theatre;
- Competed in the NSW Indoor Rowing Championships in Drummoyne;
- Celebrated the 60 years Anniversary of the Canberra Blind Society;
- Cheered the triathletes at the World Triathlon Championships on the Gold Coast;
- Spoken to University of Canberra – Occupational Therapy students; and
- Watched (listened to the audio description) shows at the Canberra Theatre.
Oh! This does not include all those rowing and bike ergo sessions at the gym and garage, FIT and Parkruns, walks for Pawgust, playdates with my four-legged friends and all the usual outings to coffee shops and all!
I am exhausted just trying to remember what I have done!
Launch of the Puppy Raising Program in Canberra
I along with all my guide dog mates would not have been able to fulfil our dream of becoming a guide dog without the loving and caring families who brought us up when we were puppies. Until recently, all the Puppy Raising families are based in the Sydney region. In September, Guide Dogs NSW/ACT launched the Puppy Raising Program in Canberra. 10 to 15 Guide Dogs puppies will need to be placed by Christmas with Canberra families. This is the link to the Puppy Raising program.
Thank You for Supporting my team for Pawgust
The team raised $2,852. Our 13 members Guide Dog Comet and Friends Team walked at least 30 minutes each day in August and clock up over one million Pawsteps between us. Guide Dogs Australia raised over $566,000 through the Pawgust Campaign. These funds will help breed, raise, train and support 11 Guide Dog puppies! Thank you once again for giving many more puppies the chance to fulfil their puppy dream of becoming a Guide Dog like me.
Canberra Theatre – Access Ambassador
Canberra Theatre Centre offers a number of access and special assistance services, which include wheelchair access, Audio description for vision impaired and caption service for hearing impaired.
I have the honour of being the Access Ambassador for the Theatre, actually Lindy is the Ambassador and I am the Ambassador’s trusted Guide Dog. The theatre has a number of shows that are audio described through the year. Vision Australia along with their volunteers describers provide this service to enable blind and vision impaired people like Lindy to enjoy the show. So far this year we have been to see Sense and Sensibility, Calamity Jane and Julius Caesar. I take my Ambassador role seriously. I get to take Lindy backstage on a Tactile Tour before the show. The show’s producer explained to the group about the set, lighting, how the set will change during the show. We often get to feel the costumes as well as props in the show. These Tactile Tours provide wonderful insight for all those can’t really see what is on the stage. Calamity Jane even popped on stage to show us her costume and spoke to us for a little while.
I look forward to our next show which is The Wharf Review in a couple of weeks time. I can only imagine … all the wonderful material that our politicians have provided to the script writers in the last few months.
Playdate with Dudley
