WESTERN CAPE NEWS

The past 14 months have been the toughest that I have ever experienced in my life. The 17th of November 2005 is still so fresh in our minds we can still feel the pains of loading the truck in Salt River and moving our humble belongings to our new premises in Claremont. After off loading the trucks and cramming stuff into the garages all hell broke loose. I think this is where the television series "Complete Home Make Over" was started. We had to ensure that we still had lines of communications open for the public to contact us as well as head office, the internet had to be up and running as well. Once we had organized a make shift office the real work began. As Ty Pennington from "Complete Home Make Over" would have yelled over his loudhailer “pull down those walls” our work began. Old cupboards, rotten carpets and flooring, tiles in the bathrooms and floors including all unwanted items were ripped up and our unwanted mountain of rubble was born.

Now that the dust has settled after a long 14 months of working late at nights and over weekends the hard work has paid off. The gardens are looking well, that’s another story, as we had to learn very fast about gardening. The house is absolutely stunning and our students that have been residents during their training with their dogs have complimented us on the new centre as they enjoyed every minute of their stay, in fact a few of them requested an extended course.

Whilst all the renovations were in progress we had to keep the big wheel turning on the operational side. If it were not for the support that we received from a few new volunteers as well as our faithful guide-dog owners, we would have found it extremely hard to survive 2006. We were able to hold street collections,the Christmas card campaign,The Kruger Rand Mailing, sell raffle tickets at our normal expo’s as well at afew new ones, including the Whimsical Ball. This year we are going to be a bit more adventurous and add a few more items to our fundraising calendar.

In December we completed the final renovations. One of the garages has been transformed into a beautiful working area for our volunteers. A Large sliding door and window have been fitted to allow lots of light into the room, the walls have been plastered,a ceiling has been fitted and the floors have also been tiled. We have also built a fantastic looking table that can seat 12 people very comfortably.

If you have some spare time or skills that could assist us in building the image of the organization, or even if you would like to drop in for tea and a tour, please feel free to contact us. Once again to all our supporters, the corporate sector, The National Lottery Board, the Service Clubs, Schools, and not forgetting our guide-dog owners a BIG THANK YOU to all of you.

KWAZULU NATAL NEWS

Summer is here, and as usual Natal is STEAMING and as we are getting ready to start the New Year I as usual need all the help I can get!! If you feel that you can donate some time to the South African Guide-Dogs Association for the Blind, either to collect, help at shows or in any other way please contact me!!

Remember that I do talks with a slide presentation about guide-dogs for groups and schools so give me a ring and we can make a date. What follows is a provisional list of dates for the year, so look out for us at the various events, or better still come and join us and help :>))

March/April:
Beach Walk:
This will take place during March or April and will start from Amanzimtoti Main Beach and finish at Amanzimtoti Golf Club where you can recover and enjoy a wonderful breakfast. The walk is roughly 6km’s on the beach and dogs on leads are welcome.
Art Competition:
The entry forms will go out at the end of April to all the schools. Please encourage you kids to enter. It’s only a R5 entrance fee and once again the winning entries will be on display at the Garden Show in Pietermaritzburg in October
South Coast Fair
April usually sees this happening at the Amanzimtoti Sports Centre and we have a stall and stock for sale.

May:
Highland Gathering & Cars in the Park – 20th May 2007
Again we usually have a stall at both these events.

June:
Royal Show – 25th May to 3rd June:
Once again we will be taking part, with a stall and selling our car raffle tickets.

July:
The 28th of July we will be holding the Annual Street Collection. Definitely all hands are needed here as we cover the whole of Durban and surrounds on that day.

August:
Golf Day:
This month sees the Annual Golf Day take place. It is usually held at Umdoni Park Golf Club the second or third Friday of the month. Again help is needed sourcing prizes and golfers.

September:
Hilton Arts Festival:
We have a stall and this is usually when we start selling our Christmas Goodies. So order and buy early!

October:
Garden Show - 5th –7th October:
Again we have a stall with all our Christmas stock.

In typical Natal fashion I can’t at this stage give you actual dates for all the events, but my contact details are below if you have any queries.

Di Turner & Gemini
PRO / Fundraisers
KwaZulu Natal

TEL: 039 973 0387
CELL: 083 654 2049
FAX: 039 973 1594