NEW BARKBY WI

Shirley Franklin, vice president, chaired the meeting held on Wednesday 2nd June. Before the business part of the meeting, members sang Jerusalem, followed by a one minute silence in memory of the victims of a mass murder which occurred in Cumbria on that day.
The speaker for the evening was Natalie Thompson from Barrow-upon-Soar, who gave a power point presentation and talked about ‘Deaf Awareness and Sing Signing’. One in seven people in the U.K. Have some form of hearing loss and it is the most common disability after mobility problems. Any breed of dog may be considered as suitable to be a hearing dog and it costs approximately £4,000 to train each dog. Patients are admitted to a special residential home to learn how to become a hearing dog owner.
Afterwards members learned signing and accompanied Natalie as she sang two pop songs, it was both difficult and funny at the same time. Some gestures are very straight forward and somehow lay people can communicate with deaf people in some form or another.
Natalie was given a donation for the Hearing Dogs for Deaf People charity.
The vote of thanks was given by Mrs C Grant and the competition for a picture of a pet dog was won by Mrs C Hickling.
Mrs S Arthur won the raffle and Mrs J Brewerton and Mrs R Foster were tea hostesses.
The next meeting will be at Syston Community Centre at 7.30pm on Wednesday 7th July when Mr Neil Head will give a presentation entitled ‘How to be your own Bodyguard’ and the competition will be ‘a Security tip’.
Visitors are always welcome.