derbyhearingdogs.org.uk

We had a meeting with the Hearing Dogs Head Office Personnel on Monday and it was concluded that to do the Ball, it may not be cost effective and therefore, we have been advised to start off small, gaining PR and publicity and getting the Derby Hearing Dogs Branch off the ground and being recognised by members of the public in our community.

We are going to be doing a lot of local fetes, stalls, carboot sales, fayres etc to bring awareness of the Branch and promoting interest in attending our Party. If it all goes well, and its succesful, we will make it bigger next year.

I will be in touch with the local press and radio stations to raise our publicity so that the more people who would like tickets, the better and allowing us to show to Head Office that we can do a bigger party next time with larger number of people.

For now, the venue has been cancelled until something suitable comes along that we can do on the night instead, which will allow for children to be involved. It will possibly mean that the ticket prices will be cheaper from what was previously stated for the Ball but please do read back to the website as it will be updated again as soon as we know more.

I’m rather disappointed that the Ball won’t be going ahead, but whatever we do come up in it’s place, Im sure it will be a fantastic night for all!

Well, what can I say? All I’ve done this week is researching online for email contacts to various popular/famous people or their agents, requesting something to go into our donation or raffle/auction prizes and praying we get something fantastic from it.

We finally found a fantastic venue, but I will not reveal it at this stage until I have the contract in my hands in case it falls through. But a wonderful venue it is and I think it would fillful all expectations of what a Charity Ball should be like.

Dan finally got Cinders picture up onto the website and it’s looking good.

I’d like to invite anyone who lives in the Derbyshire area to contact us with their stories and a picture about their own Hearing Dogs so that we can make this website look great and shows what our local Hearing Dogs are all about.

Hearing Dogs for Deaf People are holding their annual Summer Fayre during Hearing Dogs week (2nd June to 8th June 2008) at The Grange. Hopefully many of you will be there. I’m hoping to be there myself, so if any of you have any questions regarding this Charity Ball, please do see me about it or alternatively, email me here

Also tickets for the Ball will go on sale soon. Prices to be confirmed in due course and will update it here as soon as I know what has been agreed.

We were originally going to have a Black Tie dress code, but since children will also be there, we have opted to go for Smart dress code instead.

I’m going to write into this blog so you all can follow us, but mainly me! , on this Charity Ball journey from when Debs and I first agreed to do it right up until the night itself.

It will be held in special memory of Cinders, who was Deb’s first hearing dog, a lovely girl despite her lop-side walks and bumping into things, managed to live to a grand old age of 16 before she passed away peacefully in her sleep. Have fun at Rainbow Bridge Cinders and we will all see you there someday.

For those of you not knowing about Rainbow Bridge, please click here.

We offically agreed to do this Charity Ball in aid of Hearing Dogs for Deaf People on Sunday 18th May 2008.

This started us off on a flurry of activities.

I began emailing a lot of the local venues, researching on maximising the numbers, the costs and the locations in order to bring together the ideal venue on the night.

Debs did a great job, emailing loads of branded companies, asking for donations towards the Raffle prizes. Already, as I write this blog down, we have one Raffle Prize donated. Fast work Debs!

Dan, as you can see on his previous blog, has worked really hard in setting up this fantastic website, so we would like to thank him for doing this for us in his spare time - which he had quite alot of at present! Dan will also be manning the telephone for us, taking and recieving messages relating to the planning and building up of this event.

James, Deb’s husband, will also be joining this team in offering his wisdom, experience in the music industry, calm disposition (yea right! LOL ) in allowing us to stay focused on this planning stage so we can get this Ball off to a great start.

Finally got Cinder’s photo touched up and will soon be placed on the main page in due course.

Emails have been sent to various ticket designing outlets and I’m bargaining and hoping for reduced rates to buy them. If anyone knows of someone who can help by giving us "mates’ rates" or Charity donating discount, please do send them our way!

*Checks her To Do list….*

Ahh, yes. I have also booked a professional photographer and assistant who are donating their time free of charge. So a big thank you to them but for all of you wanting your pictures taken, it’s at £15.00 each, in which they will also kindly donate £2.50 from each photo bought towards Hearing Dogs for Deaf People on the night, so a fantastic bargain wth them! Also it was pure luck that I found them whilst Googling too.

Think this will do for now and I will add more as things happen so you all know the ups and downs in organising such a worthy charitable cause.

First post on the Blog! I have been working on the Website for a couple of days, trying to get it together.

I have put in the blog everything that was requested by Sasha, so there may be a few more changed to the format of this over the next few days, while I get to grips with how to set it up and sort out the layout and colours and so on.

Dan

(aka WebMaster)