Fife Society for the Blind

Vice-President Robert Main, deputising for President Dallas welcomed 21 Club members and a guest Rotarian from Dorset to Tuesday's lunchtime meeting at the Dean Park Hotel. The 200 club was drawn and 3 of the 5 prizes were won by people in the room. The Raffle, with 2 bottles of wine as prizes raised a healthy £70.

Vice-President Robert then introduced our speaker, Carl Hodson, recently appointed Chief Officer of Fife Society for The Blind, who gave a short but impressive summary of the work currently done by the charity and plans for the near future.

The charity is independent, has about 5000 people on their books, and 26 staff including 2 opticians, specialising in low visibility problems. It sets out to see their 5000 contacts have, where necessary, the right support to live independent lives and understand and get help from the latest technology. They are friendly, encourage social groups, help with benefit forms and train people to benefit from technology. The tutor for this last activity is himself totally blind. They are working on a project together with Tayside University. They get some money from Fife Council for the work they do on visiting and helping people but this only covers about 30% of the charity's costs and most of the rest comes from private donations. Demand for their services is on the increase notably among younger people as well. There are plans to open new hubs and social groups in other parts of Fife. (For further information got to www.fifesociety.com)

Past President John Kilgour gave the vote of thanks and spoke for the club when saying that we were highly likely to continue to support the Fife Society for the Blind in the future. A cheque for £500 was handed over.