25 Jul 2016

The morning started with the volunteers organising the refreshments for each table, ensuring everyone had a hot drink and biscuits for the duration of the session.

I set up the weekly food raffle, which consisted of a beautiful fruit hamper donated by one of our members, and the ‘Name the Dog’ blind card for a handmade, knitted dog kindly donated by the wife of one of our members.

I also brought my Border Collie, Monty, to meet the group as the theme for today was “It’s A Dog’s Life”. Most of the members were thrilled to have a dog visit, but I was mindful that there are some who don’t like dogs and kept him away from the tables.

Each table was handed a guidance sheet for discussions around the topics of dogs, as well as a 20 question quiz to complete over the course of the session. While the group worked through the activity, Mary went round with the raffle tickets and the blind card; Charles won the raffle prize and John won the dog, who is now named Winston.

Jean from the Digital Experts programme attended the session and worked with a small group of participants using iPads as an activity resource. Jean will be returning to work with more members in 2 weeks time.

We had three new people attend the session today, receiving positive feedback from all three. We look forward to meeting them again next week and getting to know them over the coming weeks.

Next week we will be taking part in a range of physical activities, with some more sedate activities available for those who want a more relaxing Monday morning.