Speaker:
Our speaker this month was Geoff Lamberts from the charity Medical Detection Dogs, along with Buddy, his lovely personal dog who is used, not as a detection dog, but as an ambassador for the charity. Buddy was adored by all present but was not impressed at all as he slept through most of the talk!!!
Geoff gave a lively and very informative talk describing how the amazing work the dogs do is simply based on smell! He took us through the whole procedure of where the dogs come from, how they are socialised in a normal home environment with a voluntary ‘socialiser’ for approximately a year, and then how they are trained, again by volunteers, to recognise certain long term life illnesses such as type 1 diabetes and certain cancers and then finally matched with their owner. Geoff then answered many questions raised by the members and finally a pot was passed round for anybody to make a donation – which many members were happy to do.
The Lonely Bouquet Campaign Nationally the W.I has been involved in collaboration with the National Association of Flower Arrangement Societies (NAFAS) in promoting the Lonely Bouquet campaign on National Flower Arranging Day, Friday 5 May. The idea is to spread joy by leaving a small bouquet or just a single bloom for a stranger to find – last year 60,000 bouquets were left. One of our members was lucky to be the recipient of a pretty bouquet as shown here – a truly wonderful idea that I am sure brings much joy to anybody receiving such a surprise – no doubt this is something we will be thinking of doing next May 5th.
Lunch: Earlier this month, several ladies travelled to the Royal Oak at Potton and enjoyed a delicious lunch and, of course, a good natter.
Next Meeting:Our next meeting will be held on 21st June when our speaker will be Stephen Hearn from Tring Auction House.
To find out more about what is going on you can log on to our website at www.papwortheverardwi.org.uk or if you are 18 or over just come along to one of our meetings at 7.15 for 7.30 on the third Wednesday of each month in the Studio next door to the Library. You can be sure of a warm welcome. The visitor’s fee is £4.00 including refreshments.