All four of our charity shops are now back open and have been extremely busy in the first few days, especially at Southbourne and Lower Parkstone.
A huge “thank you” to all customers who have visited the shops and especially for observing our social distancing guidelines so well.
Thank you also to people who have offered donations directly to the shops. We have been overwhelmed with these so are having to limit what we take into the shops each day, which we hope people understand.
If you would like to donate items and want to take these direct to a shop it’s probably best at the moment to phone the shops first and ask if they are able to accept what you are offering – that way you are saved a wasted journey if the shops is already full on donations for that day.
Thank you again for your support, it really is appreciated.
Freddie is doing his Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award this year and as part of that, is riding his bike throughout the summer holidays. He wants to see how far he can cycle and at the same time raise funds for the Dorset Blind Association. He is aiming to do 300km so make sure you check in to see his progress.
A huge thank you to all the kind and generous people who have offered donations for our charity shops ahead of them re-opening on 3rd July.
We have received so many that we are now pausing collections, to allow time to safely process what has been given so far
We expect to be able to start booking collections again towards the middle of July, so if you have donations to offer for collection please wait now and call out office on 01202 712865 FROM 13TH JULY ONWARDS
Legacies can be a hard source of funding to work into conversation for any charity as they only come about following someone’s death. So, you see, not exactly a topic to approach with reckless abandon.
Thankfully, we British largely tend to talk about death with an air of indifference, as if it’s something of a matter-of-fact banality, which can be a godsend when bringing up the subject of whether an individual might consider adding a gift in their Will in the form of a legacy.
A legacy donation is a charitable contribution left to us in somebody’s Will, and they are a HUGE source of funding for us.
They’re usually left as a MONETARY GIFT (where you specify a fixed amount) or a RESIDUAL GIFT (effectively whatever is left of your estate, or a share of it).
Also, if you have already written your Will, you can add a Codicil including a gift to us.
If YOU would like to consider leaving a legacy donation to us, you can discuss this with your solicitor, or just phone us on 01202 712865 for more info.
Information shared around the coronavirus pandemic, and particularly the current government guidelines, should really be the most important information shared at this time. However, a lot of safety-critical instruction and advice – at least here in England – has so-far been communicated in a fashion which overwhelmingly excludes hearing and visually-impaired communities.
A prime example of this would be the lack of a sign language interpreter at government briefings over the past few weeks, which has understandably aggrieved a large number of BSL-fluent people in England. Especially galling when interpreters are being utilised so effectively in briefings given out in other countries; most notably just over the border in Scotland, and Wales.
Likewise, frustration with the lack of printed materials and information shared on social media by Public Health England being not as accessible as it should be in such heightened times is fairly rife: eg a lack of audio on videos and coded image descriptions in Alt Text.
Admittedly, we’re still a little bit away from shopping and socialising getting back to something approaching normal again but we’re keen to get our POP IN A £ campaign out so it’s fresh in your mind for when you DO see our collection tins again.
The charity collection tin has been a stalwart of community fundraising for longer than you might think. But despite its old age, the tin still serves as an effective way to raise money – and an excellent reminder that there is always a reason to give: a symbol of the philanthropic culture within the UK
It’s simple enough – if you can spare it, please #popinapound when you see one of our little pink elephants cheerfully waving to you across bars and shop counters when the lockdown lifts enough for us to start frequenting our favourite shops, pubs, cafes, restaurants, et al.
One POUND may not seem like much but it can make the world of difference to us running our services to support blind and partially sighted people in your community.
We’ll be circulating details of where to find the little pink chaps in YOUR neck of the woods over the coming weeks 😃
The Ecclesiastical Movement for Good Awards are open for 2020, and we would LOVE it if you could find a few minutes to nominate DBA for a £1,000 donation. A charity can win only once but they can be nominated multiple times so please do help us out if you can: the more nominations a charity gets, the more likely they are to win a donation.
Entry is made via the online nomination form available HERE.
The winners will be selected at random from a pool of nominations and announced during the first 12 days of June.
Tom is one of our younger members. You may well have seen him out and about with us on collections down the years, or possibly on one of our posters or pull-ups (very much the poster boy for DBA is young Mr Archer), or possibly just waterskiing past you down on Sandbanks beach.
Here, Tom discusses what he has been doing to pass the time during the lockdown.
Well, like for so many other charities throughout the land, COVID-19 has been devastating for Dorset Blind Association’s finances due to the lost income from cancelled fundraising events: most notably our annual Motor Show.
In response to the current crisis facing us and other charities, a new fundraising initiative has been set up to try and help us brave the storm: and the best thing is, you can do it anywhere – including your own home!
The challenge can be anything you dream up, as long as it incorporates the number 2.6 or 26 and be on or from Sunday 26th April (the 40th London Marathon, which is the world’s biggest one-day fundraising event, was meant to take place this day, you see).
There are loads of things you could do: run 2.6 miles; do 26 minutes of juggling; complete 26 laps of your garden; if you’re a real sucker for punishment, try and make it through 26 minutes of that atrocious London Has Fallen film – even bearing 2.6 minutes would be an achievement! Anyway, there’s a host of ideas available here on the official page.
There are no rules– apart from the Government guidelines on how to exercise safely during this time, naturally – and the challenge is suited to people of all ages and abilities. The main thing is to get busy, have fun and pledge whatever you can to fundraise to save the UK’s charities.
You can donate here or fundraise here via JustGiving or donate directly via the DBA page. Once you’ve set up a fundraising page, don’t forget to post it on social media with the hashtag #TwoPointSixChallenge and tag us. Likewise, do the same with any photos you post on social media platforms so we can share with our followers:
Go on: be a Home Hero and raise funds from your lounge, garden, bedroom or balcony. Or bath! Ooh, and please do share this with your chums by nominating them as well so they can think about pitching in too!
Any questions? Please email Gareth at gareth@dorsetblind.org.uk
With our charity shops now closed for the moment, our fantastic staff and volunteers have been putting themselves to good use in the community, supporting the vulnerable in this time of uncertainty.
Julia, manager of our Southbourne branch, has volunteered to collect prescriptions and shopping for vulnerable people in her area, with Sue and Andrea, who volunteer at the shop, also helping in the scheme. There’s obviously a real need out there at the moment for volunteers in the community, and it’s fantastic to see DBA stepping up to help.
