About a year ago a small group of islanders started fundraising for guide dogs in the island.
Many islanders will remember a collection box at the airport over the decades, including Deb Christopher, who has taken on the role of guide dog collection box coordinator.
‘We had one at the airport that’s been there for donkey’s years – my children used to play on it when they were little, they’re now nearly 40,’ she said.
She found a very old full-size floor collection box which used to be displayed at Vazon, and ordered another from the UK, but it arrived in the island smashed to pieces.
‘I didn’t know what to do with it, it would have ended up going to landfill or something, so I took it to the Men’s Shed and Tony and Dennis there have done an amazing job. You can hardly see where the break was. It was completely broken around the bottom,’ she said.
The box was installed at Le Friquet Garden Centre at the weekend.
‘It’s a lot of money we need to raise and because Le Friquet has got a large footfall I thought a floor box there would be a good idea,’ said Mrs Christopher.
At present there is only one working guide dog in Guernsey, named Cyril, after the first person in the island to own a guide dog.
It takes £77,000 to get, raise and train a puppy for the role.
Tony Lewis did the repairs on the box.
‘It probably took eight or nine hours,’ he said.
‘They were quite badly damaged, once you start they were a lot worse even than they looked, but we enjoyed doing it for charity.’
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