FOUNDATION FOR BUND

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30092, 28 March 1963, Page 5

FOUNDATION FOR BUND

Active Year Reviewed > The roll of the Christchurch branch of the New Zealand Foundation for the Blind has increased by 81 to 517, said Mr G. F. C. Ashdowne, branch manager and secretary to the Christchurch advisory committee to the foundation, in his report to the annual meeting of the committee yesterday. The year had been one of the most active periods for the branch, he said. The branch auxiliary including drivers, readers, sewers, and letter writers. Fifty-eight new “talking tape’’ machines had been distributed. Occupational therapy was being taken by 93 persons, 11 were attending the weekly pottery classes and 32 were enrolled in adult education classes.

Nine persons were admitted to Fernwood, the South Island hostel for the blind, as permanent residents during the year, and the waiting list was now 71. A sub-committee had been set up to prepare plans for extending the hostel, but no date had yet been fixed for the start of the third wing. Plans were well in hand for the 1963 National Braille Week to be held in late July and for the annual collection, said Mr Ashdowne. Mrs A. J. Mair, and Messrs W. G. V. Fernie, and T. Turner, were re-elected to the committee.