Directors Message

Successful Challenges

My report includes some interesting and successful challenges. Firstly, nine marathons in nine days! Is that possible, I hear you say? Actually, yes it is, as evidenced by our own Ben Allcock in September on his marvellous effort to raise funds for OAB’s Future Vision project. I’ll leave Ben’s article to talk about the experience, which I’m sure you’ll be interested in. Well done to Ben and also to the nine runners who successfully completed the Oxford Half Marathon on our behalf, including our new part-time fundraiser, Laura Howdill, who joined the team in August.

Events like these have helped to progress the fundraising for Future Vision, the project to build a new Resource Centre for Visually Impaired People. A project which is rapidly becoming a reality. As I write, the walls are beginning to go up, and the team and I are excited to see the Centre taking shape. Those of you who have been involved in building work before will not be surprised to learn that we did have a hiccough. After the discovery of a gas main, we had a delay while it was re-routed. We’re back on track now. The roof should be on by Christmas and we hope to begin the new services in April.

We heard about two other successful challenges from the speaker, at our AGM, Jan Meek, who used to work for OAB. The meeting was a very enjoyable occasion and Jan rounded it off nicely with a fascinating talk about her journey rowing across the Atlantic Ocean and her trek to the North Pole. I wonder what else past team members have been getting up to! At the AGM, all of the existing Trustees were re-elected. They will continue to guide and support the organisation in the coming exciting year.

I’d also like to introduce you to another new member of the team. Fiona McNally joined us in September, also working on fundraising and assisting the Director. Both Fiona and Laura have settled in very quickly and are clearly keen to do all they can for the benefit of our service users. Sadly, we will soon be saying goodbye to Ben, who is leaving for pastures new. We thank Ben for all of his efforts for us and wish him well in the future.

Meanwhile, the other members of our dedicated team are continuing to provide our services, from a rather cramped base. Our volunteer visitors are also out visiting visually impaired people in Oxford and Banbury. I recently went along to a training course for new volunteers run by our Coordinator, Ana. I met a very enthusiastic group of new volunteers who were keen to learn how best to assist visually impaired people. They are a great bunch and I’m sure they are going to make a valuable contribution to our service. Once again, I’d like to thank all of our volunteers who help the team with tasks as diverse as home visiting, advising at our Sight Desk, administration, fundraising, newsletter packing, organising and assisting at groups, and more.

By the time you receive this newsletter, I’m sure you’ll be preparing for Christmas. I do hope that you have a nice festive season. Thank you once again to everyone who has made this year a special one for OAB.

Colin Cure