Donation Morning

 Yesterday morning, along with all my other stuff I've been doing this week, I was signed up to take donations in the city center. I met up with my friend, who I was assigned to work with, and his two dogs. Bailey is 14 months and Vale is 6 months. Bailey is off for her formal training this Friday which is, as always, bittersweet. I was going to go to the puppy class this Tuesday but I apparently have an English lecture on Tuesdays from 10-11am. Of course! If I had a puppy I wouldn't mind missing an English lecture once a month for puppy class especially since they record the lectures and since all of my friends are taking this English course as well. But, it's the first lecture so I decided that I shouldn't miss it...but I still have until tomorrow morning to change my mind. Haha!

Bailey (L) and Vale (L). Bailey is such a silly girl. She's a lab/golden cross and sometimes her golden personality shines through. She's such a cute, good girl. Vale is a yellow lab and still pretty adorable.  

Now I have a problem guys. I'm not the biggest fan of this "break" thing from puppy raising, but I figure that it's best for me to figure out my schedule and puppy sit before I commit to taking a puppy to University full time. Only one problem; I met this cutie.

This is Ace. A 5 1/2 month old German Shepherd.

 Why is this a problem? He was such an adorable, sweet guy and I absolutely fell in love with him. I want to request a German Shepherd when I start again, but can I wait until April to get one of these things? I'm beginning to think that I won't be able to do it.

Since I can't speak to the leader this Tuesday at the puppy class I'm going to try and get together with him and talk to him about how to get my house visit done.

The Fundraising Meeting

Ok, guys. The meeting was pretty...well, it wasn't the most fun thing ever, but it was pretty cool. I got to meet a few people with working Guides and a few Puppy Walkers. I had met one of the puppy walkers before. He's got Denzel who is a little younger than Rocco, but he's going back to Forfar for training very soon. He told me about the next puppy meeting they're having and offered to give me a ride if I wanted to come. It means that I would have to miss a lecture or two, but I'm ok with that just this once... Anyway, we also learned about a new radio programme hosted by a blind man. It's worldwide, but I can't remember the website right now, but as soon as I find out I'll let you know. Then we had tea and biscuits and I got to cuddle a really cute black lab female and a little yellow lab female. One of the retired guide in attendance got really friendly with me. She even tried to see if I would give her any of my biscuit. :-D She was really sweet. Anyway, that's all for now! Not a lot of pictures, but there you go.

First Meeting

Today is going to be my first meeting with the Aberdeen Fundraising Team. I'm very excited because I know that there are a few people with PITs going to be in attendance and there will also be a few working teams. It should be a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone. This should also be a great opportunity for pictures so I think I'll take a couple. I don't think I'll have time to post them until Wednesday evening though, but we'll see.

My Volunteer Fundraising Pack

A few days ago I got my fundraising pack from GDB. I was very, very excited when I got it and wanted to tell you guys all about it right when I got it in the mail, but I've been so busy this week. But that just means that I get to show you guys just what was in my packet instead of doing a really quick, little post the day I got it. So, here we go:

The front cover
Inside the front cover there's a little thank you note from a Guide Dog
Fancy huh?
My numerous reading materials to get me started in fundraising
Some suggestions and guidelines for fundraising

More suggestions and some info about what the fundraising team does
Two of the brochures. (L) gives information on how to lead a blind person and (R) is about how you can apply to get a Guide Dog and how you qualify

These three are all about different ways I can fund raise. I like some of the ideas and might borrow a dog from a friend to "Go for Walkies" to raise money.

This is the one I'm particularly interested in. You can Name a Puppy as a way to raise money. Meaning that I give them so much money and I get to name one of the puppies and throughout its life as a PIT I would get pictures and report cards and get to meet the puppy on different occasions. It's a lot of money though.

(L) Invites to Fundraiser and (R) Tickets to Fundraisers

Info on how I get the money to GDB

Really cool paper. I'm not sure what it's for, but I'm probably going to be making copies of it.
Hey Look! More guidelines and regulations concerning fundraising.
Finally, a business card for the regional developer
It's even in Braille

So, yep! I'm finally a part of GDB here. It definitely feels good, even if I don't have a puppy to raise right now. I'm hoping that I don't have to take a 4 year break from it. I miss having a puppy, but what is suppose to be will be I suppose. There's a fundraising meeting on the 5th of April. It'll take me an hour to walk to the place, but I'm definitely going. Hopefully there will be a few puppy raisers there and I can love on a puppy and get my dog fix. I run into a dog walking up High Street occasionally. His name is Alfie and he LOVES attention. I stop every time I see him and talk to his owner (shame I don't know her name) and love on him. He always give me kisses. He's a great dog fix as he's so sweet, but I haven't seen him in a few days.

It's Official

I'm officially a part of the Fundraising Team for GDB UK. Hooray! The only thing left for me to do is to have an in person meeting with my district leader, person, thing. I'm pretty excited.

I met to PITs the other day. Denzel and Billy. They were both yellow labs, Denzel is male and Billy is female. Denzel is just a little younger than Rocco, but he's definitely more mellow. Haha! Rocco's a mellow guy when he wants to be, but is a real energizer bunny when he doesn't. I talked a while with the raisers. We talked about normal things like how hard it is to give up your puppy, but you really wouldn't want to do anything else after seeing the good they do. I definitely hope I get to work with these two puppies during my volunteering work. I also found out that Lisa is not allergic to dogs (or cats or horses) so if my landlord agrees (that is assuming we find a house by next year) I might be able to raise a puppy here! Pretty cool I think.

Also, I'd like to give a shout out to blogger and puppy raiser Megan. Congratulations!!!