Canine Partners

The first week of June is #VolunteersWeek, so we wanted to shine a bright light on our wonderful volunteers who support us in our mission to train amazing dogs.

Our first volunteer profile is Brenda Potter, one of our fantastic fundraisers who goes out of her way to raise vital funds that enable us to transform the lives of people with disabilities.

What is your voluntary role at Canine Partners?

Firstly I think of myself as a supporter and when possible fundraiser for Canine Partners.

How long have you been volunteering for Canine Partners?

I became interested about five years ago when I re-established a friendship after many years with David and Belinda Day by meeting them by accident for coffee in our local Waitrose. David was accompanied by Crunchie his canine partner. Crunchie and I became the best of friends.

It was this contact that introduced me to the work of the charity and set this cat lover off on a mission to help however I could. My commitment to the charity was consolidated at my first thank you morning run by the Bedfordshire satellite group, where I met and was able to talk to a young woman with Cerebral Palsy.

Her canine partner had given her the confidence to go to college and study for a degree. As a retired teacher, her situation and the fulfilment of her ambition really touched me.

Why did you choose to volunteer for Canine Partners?

I chose Canine Partners as it brought together my love of animals, my understanding of the special relationship they can have with people and a desire to help a hands on charity where I can see how the money I raise is used to help people.

Since becoming involved, one of the things I have done is dye my hair purple for sponsorship (I had never dyed my hair before in my life!) – this raised £2,085. By drawing attention to myself in this way I spoke to loads of complete strangers about the charity too.

I’ve also organised two dog lunches at my home, where people are invited for a free lunch but buy loads of raffle tickets in the hope that they might be lucky enough to win a well-stocked carrier bag of groceries. In the last two years, with the help of my friends Sue and Mike, I have also taken part in our local town garage sale. This year I managed to raise £407 from other people’s unwanted items.

I was also asked a few years ago to visit a junior school to organise a ceramics project where students were tasked with sculpting tiles from clay, glazing and painting them with poppies in memory of the men who had died in the Great War. As the school wished to pay me for my time, I requested they donate the money straight to Canine Partners instead.

My local satellite group in Bedford are very active in the community and I will occasionally help with selling merchandise at talks as well as collecting items as raffle prizes for fetes which is a really easy way to support the charity. I have personally donated towards the cost of four puppies in the Bedford area and have had the opportunity to get to know them and watch their progress. In this process I have learnt a lot about dogs and how they are trained to transform lives.

Finally, I have also just included the charity in my will.

What is the most rewarding thing about volunteering for Canine Partners?

Supporting Canine Partners is a wonderful way to give people back the opportunity to live their life as they would want to live it. For me, being a volunteer has given me the opportunity to get to know a wide range of very friendly people all with the same aim as myself.

An important part of this charity is that your contribution is always valued and you will receive a personal thank you.

Why should others volunteer for Canine Partners?

Looking at what I’ve done to raise money I hope it shows that you don’t have to jump out of a plane to help (if someone had asked me to do this the answer would have been no!). If you want to volunteer, you can do as little or as much as you like in a variety of different ways, as not everyone is able to be a puppy or fosterer. The little things you do are what matter and over time add up to more than you think you could ever do.

I get a great deal of pleasure from my association with Canine Partners and I’m sure others would as well.