Ravenstone WI talk
Date: Tuesday May 15, 2007
Joan Harrington and Stan Marriner are both registered speakers for the charity and are willing to give talks to local groups, companies or schools. Joan reports on a recent talk she gave for the Ravenstone WI.
On Tuesday 15th May I attended the monthly meeting of Ravenstone WI to give an illustrated talk about Hearing Dogs. Like many of my talks this had been arranged many months ago. Ravenstone is a very picturesque village of stone built thatched cottages. I cannot call it a typical English Village because it doesn’t have a pub.
Luckily I had done a reconnaissance of the village hall location where the meeting was being held. I discovered it didn’t have a car park. Normally I like to park as close as I can to the venue’s entrance because of the equipment and support material that I have to carry in. There was some road parking just opposite the hall and fortunately I managed to park there on the night.
I find that talks are more successful if I can attend with a Hearing Dog and their recipient. For the Ravenstone talk I was accompanied by two hearing dogs, Gypsy with Janet Durbidge and Gompa with Stan Marriner plus support from Doreen Monk our branch Chairperson. It really helps to have Hearing dogs or dogs being socialised there as everyone likes to meet them and have a pat plus a talk. In fact, one lady admitted that she had been listening to me but had not been looking at the slides. She had been watching Gompa instead.
After the talk there was an opportunity to ask questions and to meet the dogs. We were served with very nice refreshments and a cup of tea or coffee. I was even able to take a slice of fruitcake home for my husband. I always look forward to the WI talks as they always give us good refreshments.’
If you’d like to arrange a talk please contact us.