Summer Outing

June 2014 Newsletter

Summer Outing

PAB's summer outing this year will be on Monday 28 July to Springfields near Spalding. You can browse the shops, take the water taxi to Spalding town centre, or enjoy the gardens. Cost is £5 and the coach will leave Westgate at 10.00 am. To reserve a place, please contact the office.

Low Vision Day 23rd September

The Peterborough Low Vision Day 2014 will take place on Tuesday 23rd September from 10.30am to 3.30pm at Centre 68, Westgate, Peterborough, PE1 1RB.

Last year we successfully moved the event into the city centre and attendance was significantly up on recent years. However, the venue had some drawbacks. This year we have been able to address those concerns with a move to PAB's city centre premises. The venue provides more floor area which is all at ground level with no steps and provides easy access to the public and exhibitors. The 20% increase in floor space will also allow us to provide on-site catering with a dedicated seating area.

To avoid overcrowding we are once again limiting exhibitor numbers but we do suggest you come later in the day - the exhibitors will all still be there in the afternoon and it probably won't be so crowded.

For more details please call the office or email Mandy at [email protected] putting LV Day in the subject line. Rifle shooting

When I told my husband I was going to try rifle shooting I could tell he was worried! To be fair, this was probably not just because my eyesight is poor, but he also knows my temper is not much better. To many people, the words ‘blind’ and ‘shooting’ are never used together. However, PAB was asked by Whittlesey Rifle Club to try out some equipment they had borrowed, so Tim, Yvonne and I gave it a go. I hadn't realised that blind and partially-sighted people across the UK have been taking part in modern acoustic air rifle shooting for over 15 years, and there are more than 20 locations to do this across the UK.

Acoustic shooting works using a beam of light and as the shooter aims closer to the light-coloured bull, and the amount of light reflected back increases, a higher-pitch sound is heard by the shooter through headphones connected to the ‘scope. This allows them, through hearing the changes in pitch as they move across the target, to position themselves accurately for the best shot. Volunteer guides help with loading and initial positioning.

This is an activity that blind, partially sighted and sighted people can take part in on a level playing field. It is something I never expected to be able to do, and I would recommend it to anyone. Whittlesey Rifle Club are keen to buy the equipment so that they can offer this on a regular basis. If you'd like to give it a go, ring the office.

Ten Pin Bowling

Would you like to keep fit, have fun and meet other members? PAB ten pin bowling sessions will take place at AMF Bowling, Sturrock Way, Bretton, Peterborough PE3 8YF on the first Tuesdays of the month at 2 pm: 1 July 5 August 2 September

If you would like to join in, please phone the office up to the Thursday before these dates, on 01733 344 844 so we can book the correct number of lanes. Cost is £2.60 per person per game, and you can pay on the day.

Sailability

Sailability is now up and running again on Tuesdays or Thursdays, after the refurbishment and upgrading of the Watersports Centre in Ferry Meadows. For more information, please contact the office.

Good news for sporting enthusiasts

Disabled people in Peterborough will have more chances to get involved in sport after Inspire Peterborough, a Disability Peterborough project, received £277,720 of funding in April from Sport England’s Inclusive Sport fund.

The project is one of 44 across England that will benefit from £8.06 million of National Lottery investment from Sport England to open up more opportunities for disabled people to play sport. Inspire Peterborough will use its funding to become the leading disability sporting partnership in Peterborough, improving the mental and physical health and well-being of everyone involved. It will be a coordinating hub, enabling effective and creative partnerships between disabled people, their families and carers, charities and sporting organisations, in order to increase the numbers of people participating in disability sporting and leisure activities.

Further details will be on the Inspire Peterborough website: www.inspirepeterborough.com

Calibre Audio Library

Do you want an easy way of listening to your audio books without the fuss of paying an annual subscription? For a one-off payment of £35 (£20 for under-16s) you can enjoy free books for life from Calibre Audio Library’s 7,000 digital titles available on USB sticks, CDs or by streaming. Streaming is where you listen to books via the Calibre website on a laptop, smartphone or tablet. If you prefer a membership package which includes books and a USB player, you can choose either the Boombox (£65) or Sovereign (£70). Players can be purchased individually. Create your own reading list or Calibre can send you a selection of books from your chosen categories. You can borrow up to 3 USB sticks or 8 CDs at a time.

If you haven’t used audio books before you can take advantage of the 12 week free trial period. For more information about joining Calibre including their group and book club memberships, call Membership Services team on 01296 432 339 or email [email protected].

Coffee Mornings July to September 2014

Coffee mornings take place every 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month at St. Peter & All Souls Church Hall, Fitzwilliam Street, Peterborough, 10.30 am - 12.00 noon. Future dates for your diary are:

Wednesday 9th July Wednesday 23rd July Speaker: David Hamilton Creative Travel

Wednesday 13th August Wednesday 27th August

Wednesday 10th September Wednesday 24th September

Holiday in Somerset

Creative Travel are offering a holiday from Peterborough to Weston-super-Mare from 6 – 10 October at the Lauriston Hotel. Cost is £299 and includes coach travel to the hotel, half board accommodation and free holiday cover. The hotel offers entertainment every evening, and there are also day excursions. If you would like to know more, contact the office or come to the coffee morning on 23 July. PAB AGM Minutes

Copies of our AGM Minutes are now available on memory stick or CD. If you would like a copy please contact PAB.

Easyfundraising

PAB has signed up to the easyfundraising website, so now you can raise money for us by shopping online. You don't pay anything extra, and here is how it works:

1. Start at easyfundraising Let's say you want to buy a pair of shoes from John Lewis. Instead of going to johnlewis.com, you go to easyfundraising.org.uk first – or you can use the easyfundraising toolbar.

2. Make a purchase You click from the easyfundrasing website through to John Lewis to make your purchase. The price of the shoes is exactly the same as if you'd visited John Lewis directly.

3. Get a donation After you buy your shoes, John Lewis will give you a cash reward that you can turn into a donation to PAB, easyfundraising collect this and send it on at no extra cost.

And it works just the same at Sainsbury's, Amazon and many more retailers. Easy!

Money for old ink

Don't forget you can recycle your old print cartridges and mobile phones and raise money for PAB at the same time! Just drop off your old cartridges or phones at the office, or pick up a freepost envelope at coffee morning.If you know of any local businesses which would have a box and save old cartridges for us, let us know and we can arrange for them to have a collection box. Guide Dogs' Annual Bus Survey

Guide Dogs want to thank all who have completed their bus passenger survey. As you know, Guide Dogs are seeking feedback from bus passengers about their experience travelling on board a bus, whether it is a talking bus or not. Guide Dogs are keen to make this survey an even bigger success than the last survey. It should only take between five and ten minutes on average to complete. A reminder that the bus passenger survey is open until 18 July so there is still time to give your feedback. People can complete it online or by ringing the number below. If you have a twitter account you can retweet @MyGuideHLS108 or tweet yourself.

The results from the last bus survey enabled Guide Dogs to produce 'The Road to Nowhere' report which jelped them raise the need for more Talking Buses with MPs and Bus Companies. They are very keen for feedback as previous results were used extensively in Westminster Hall Debate by MPs in October 2013 which helped secure a meeting with the Minister responsible for buses.

For this area Guide Dogs have had 100 people respond, but would like more. You can find the survey online at https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Bus-Passenger-Survey-14 or ring 0800 688 8404.

Sainsbury’s police contact point

Members of the public in part of Peterborough will soon be able to raise any issues or concerns with their local policing team as they do their food shopping.

Cambridgeshire's Police and Crime Commissioner"s pilot Police Contact Point initiative will launch on Thursday, May 22 at Sainsbury's in Bretton. The Contact Point will see Sir Graham Bright's Outreach Worker and local police regularly engaging with the public. If successful, the Commissioner hopes that the model can be adapted and rolled out to other Sainsbury's stores and other premises across Cambridgeshire. The contact point will be open at regular advertised times, with the potential to extend these hours if there is demand within the community.Sir Graham said: “The contact point will be a high visibility 'drop in' to allow the public to raise any issues or concerns either with my Outreach Worker or with the local policing team. This is all about listening to the public and further increasing the time our officers spend out in their communities. We hope that people will come along on the day, and long after the launch itself, to discuss any issues or concerns they want to see being addressed.”

More information about the pilot is available on the Commissioner's website at http://www.cambridgeshire- pcc.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/14-02-27-BCB- Agenda-Item-14-Public-Points-of-Access.pdf

200+ Club

Thank you to all who support PAB through membership of the 200+ Club, which funds this newsletter. We congratulate our lucky winners this quarter:

9 April Ms Shirley Nott £50 Mr David Plant £30 Mrs Jennifer Wren £20

14 May Mr Stephen Vardy £50 Janet Cracknell £30 Mrs Sylvie Siecker £20

Best wishes from the PAB Committee

______Peterborough Association for the Blind Centre 68, 68b Westgate, Peterborough, PE1 1RG Tel: 01733 344 844