DECEMBER 2013 & JANUARY 2014 Editor: Jo Wood

ISSUE 29

Eye can’t, but I can!

providing support, guidance & information to the visually impaired for over 100 years

Bournemouth Society for the Visually Impaired

COME AND JOIN IN THE FUN AT BSVI!

SEASON’S GREETINGS TO YOU ALL!

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Philip’s Thoughts

Half Marathon

Congratulations to volunteer driver Ian Tyrrell (pictured right) and supporter Malcolm Simpson (pictured below left with Trustee Mike Dwyer) for completing the Bournemouth Half Marathon on Sunday 6th October 2013 and helping us to raise much needed funds and promoting an awareness of BSVI.

In the past few weeks we have been happy to welcome a number of new members to our centre in Victoria Park Road. They have all settled in quickly and now look forward to their visits here with keen anticipation. You can see some of them enjoying our activities on the front cover of this newsletter. Following a review by the Society’s Trustees, it was agreed to cut costs and reduce the number of paid staff working at BSVI. We sadly said goodbye to Ruth Stanley and Marion Vincent at the end of September and thank them for all their hard work and support over the years. We wish them well in their futures and hope they will remember their time at BSVI fondly and keep in contact with their friends here. We are currently busy preparing activities for the festive season and with Christmas almost upon us, I wish our readers Season’s Greetings from all the staff. We hope you have a happy and healthy New Year and look forward to your company in 2014. Philip

Photography Project

Selina Weich, a 2nd year Photography student at the Arts University, is working with a small group of members on her project ‘Visual Perception without the use of sight but focusing on other senses.’ They will take photographs with disposable cameras and then evaluate the results.

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BSVI services

Emotional Support - Our 2 BACP qualified Counsellors Caterina and Marie provide emotional support for anyone who is affected by sight loss, in addition to family members and carers of the visually impaired. If you think you may benefit from their assistance, please call them on 01202 522184. Chiropody - Margareth Sackett, a HPC registered chiropodist, offers appointments every 6 weeks on a Wednesday morning. Transport can be arranged. The next date is 8th January. The dates for the rest of 2014 can be found on a sheet enclosed with this newsletter. Please phone 01202 546644 to book an appointment. Befriending - Volunteer befrienders can visit members in their own homes for chats, form-filling, to help with correspondence or read the newspapers. Telephone Befriending is also available. If you would like to talk about receiving visits or volunteer as a Befriender, please contact Geraldine Bradley on 01202 522184. ActivEyes - The ActivEyes Youth Group will meet on Saturday 21st December for their Christmas party from 10.30-12.30. Please go to contact@activeyes.org.uk for further details or find the group on Facebook. Tuesday morning Drop In Café - Any visually impaired person is welcome on Tuesdays between 10.30 and 12.30 for a chat and a cooked breakfast. Pre-booked roast lunches are available on the last Tuesday of each month. Minibus transport can be arranged. Do come along to meet new friends and enjoy a lively, vibrant atmosphere! Hearing Club - Our Hearing Club takes place on the 2nd Wednesday of each month from 10.30-12 noon. Transport is available from BSVI at a cost of £4 for the round trip - please book in the office 2 days in advance.

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Geraldine Bradley attended an Information Day at Sunrise in Westbourne in November. BSVI staff went to Glenhurst Manor Care Home in early November to raise awareness of BSVI and sight loss. Residents from Glenhurst joined BSVI members to enjoy our afternoon of entertainment with the Caledonians. We hope to welcome our new ‘friends’ to further social activities in the new year. Philip Tarrant is giving a talk to the Brendoncare club in Boscombe on January 16th 2014. If you know any group or organisation who would like an information talk about the work of BSVI, please contact Philip on 01202 546644 or e-mail: philip.tarrant@bsvi.org.uk

My Guide - We have fully trained volunteers ready to help you get out and explore your local area on foot. For more details, contact Geraldine Bradley on 01202 522184. The Walking Group is taking a temporary break over the winter months and will resume on Friday 21st March 2014 with a walk around the historic town of Christchurch. Archery Club - This takes place on Tuesday evenings from 6-8pm in the Rooper Hall. Transport can be provided for £4. Please phone 01202 546644 if you would like to book a place and join a friendly group for some fun and healthy competition!

In the Community Job Focus

Karen Kerley and her team from Action for Blind People held a certificate awards morning in October for those who had attended the Wednesday Job Focus sessions. Paralympic downhill ski champion Richard Burt presented certificates and gave an excellent motivational speech about living with visual impairment. To find more details of Action for Blind People’s employment assistance sessions for the visually impaired, please call Karen on 01722 345440.

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Christmas Raffle

We hope you received your invitation to our Christmas Lunch on Thursday 19th December. Please don’t forget to return your booking form - a day of good food, fun and entertainment should be a great way to start your festive celebrations !

We are still selling tickets for the Christmas Raffle. Each ticket costs £1 and each book contains 5 tickets. The raffle will be drawn at the Christmas Lunch. The 1st prize is a Kindle and the 2nd is a Luxury Hamper, with many more wonderful prizes on offer. Please generously support us - more tickets can be purchased or collected from the office.

Christmas Cards

The last packets of BSVI Christmas cards are on sale in the office at the reduced

price of £1.50 for a packet of 10. Don’t miss this last chance to send BSVI cards to all your family and friends.

Christmas Lunch

Mick & Daren Update

Blind member Daren reports ‘we have returned from walking a few more miles of the South West Coastal Path. Our first two days consisted of walking from Coverack to The Lizard and then Newlyn to Marazion.

Unfortunately we were unable to complete the following three days due to horrendous weather conditions. We hope to do a bucket collection at the Dolphin Shopping Centre in Poole on Tuesday 3

rd December.

We are looking forward to attending the BSVI Christmas Party in December and catching up with everyone there - please do come and say hello to us!’ To follow Mick and Daren’s fundraising campaign, please go to: www.justgiving.com/mickanddaren

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Fundraising

During the last few months BSVI received the following: Donations from Bournemouth East Cliff Rotary (£750) and Bournemouth Scrabble Club (£645). Jackie Bugden also donated funds in lieu of a Golden Wedding present. Donations were also received in memory of Mary Saint. We are delighted to announce that £735 was raised from the September concert at BSG. We thank the Bournemouth Male Voice Choir and soloist soprano Fiona for providing excellent entertainment. BSVI relies heavily on donations to continue the work that makes such a difference to the visually impaired. Thank you to everyone for their generosity and continued support.

70’s/80’s Disco

This fundraising 70’s/80’s Disco will take place at Bournemouth Electric Club on 14th December from 7.30pm - midnight. Tickets are £14 (including a Ploughmans) and can be purchased from BSVI. Get your dancing shoes on, get into the Christmas party spirit and help to raise funds for us at the same time!

Cards Tournament

The annual Staff v Members Cards Tournament will take place on Wednesday 11th December at 1.30pm. Whist and cribbage matches will be played to battle it out for the Cup that the members have won for the past three years. Festive refreshments will also be served.

Pub Quiz

For your diaries - the dates for the 2014 fundraising Pub Quizzes are:

Saturday 29th March Saturday 21st June

Saturday 27th September Saturday 29th November

Tickets cost £8.50 and these

include Fish and Chips and an Ice-cream. A Cash Bar is available and a Raffle will be held during the evening. Please telephone 01202 546644 if you would like to book in your team.

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BSVI Sight & Hearing Resource Centre

Opening Hours: Monday - Friday

10 am - 1pm Everyone is welcome to visit our Resource Centre - no appointment is necessary. Our friendly staff and volunteers can offer demonstrations of specialist equipment for sight and hearing impaired people to order or purchase. The Resource Centre closes for Christmas on Monday 23rd December at 12 noon and re-opens on Thursday 2nd January 2014 at 10am.

Activities

We have a supply of a large print leaflet from the Macular Society entitled ‘Using Technology’ which would be particularly useful for visually impaired people when choosing or using mobile telephones, TV’s, computers, tablets and readers, CCTVs and magnifiers. Please call in and ask for a copy. The Macular Society helpline is 0300 3030 111. Large print calendars and diaries are now available to purchase or order.

We thank The Caledonians and Andrew Cannon for providing wonderful afternoons of musical entertainment in November. We hope you will enjoy the trip to the Epiphany School to hear their choir sing on Monday 2nd December. On Thursday 9th January we have planned a Pub lunch trip and on Monday 20th January we have a guest speaker from Bournemouth University who will give a ‘Tales from the Sea’ talk/workshop. The Dorset Trefoil Choir will entertain us on Thursday 30th January.

We have a new BT4500 big button cordless telephone with an answering machine to demonstrate. This item can be purchased in local stores for about £60. We remind you that we have a range of talking watches available to view and order that may be ideal for Christmas presents. We also have a supply of Lions Club ‘Message in a Bottle’ containers that people may wish to collect. These are used to store important personal/medical information in case of emergency.

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Meet the member

Company Reg No: 5792657

www.bsvi.org.uk

Our services are designed to enable people who have a significant visual impairment remain independent and

be part of the community.

Bournemouth Society for the Visually Impaired

5 Victoria Park Road, Bournemouth BH9 2RB

Tel 01202 546644 (General Enquiries) Tel 01202 522184 (Community Services)

Charity Reg No: 1114570

Member John Bennett claims ‘BSVI saved my life to some extent! It has become so vital to me, it’s a place where I can come out and have a chat to people in similar circumstances, these friendships are so important.’ John has diabetic retinopathy, which began about 8 years ago; he has some sight in his left eye but is blind in the right and has regular 6 monthly check-ups. He was referred to BSVI by the Bournemouth Sight and Hearing team. ‘I live on my own and was really depressed when I first came here, living in terrible conditions in a bedsit, it was all quite bleak and desperate so coming to BSVI picked me up no end! It is really helpful to be able to purchase devices here to help you - I’ve bought spectacles to view the TV and large print diaries and calendars.’ John now goes to our Archery club, is a regular visitor to the Tuesday café, enjoys our trips out and the fundraising Quiz Nights. He is independent, uses public transport and does his own shopping and cleaning but would like to help people to become more aware of the visually impaired and the issues they face. As he says, ‘one day recently someone asked me what my white stick was for so there is a lot of information needed to be publicised!’

e-mail: info@bsvi.org.uk