Freemasons give generous donation of £400 to Grantham and District Talking Newspaper

Freemasons have donated £400 to Grantham and District Talking Newspaper.

Grantham Freemasons presented a cheque to the talking newspaper at its office in Wharf Road. Secretary Sue Harkins, chairman Graham Cook and deputy chairman John Williams accepted the donation from Freemasons Andre Finney and Trevor Johnston on behalf of the Faraday Masonic Benevolent Fund.

The talking newspaper charity sends out a fortnightly recorded CD to blind and partially sighted people. A team of volunteers meets every two weeks and edit suitable items from the Journal early on a Friday morning. They record the news items using a group of volunteer readers, transfer the recordings to CDs and then send them out to their listeners by mid-morning so that they should arrive by Saturday.

Together with the Journal news items, a magazine section is also included, covering topics of specific interest to the blind and partially sighted but also of general local interest for them. The Royal Mail delivers these CDs free. The Journal provides free copies for editing and all helpers are volunteers who charge no expenses, so the service can be provided entirely free to listeners.

However, the Talking Newspaper relies on donations from local charities, such as the Freemasons, Rotary, and others including the Wilpeg Charitable Foundation, in order to cover its ongoing costs such as purchasing equipment, materials and the running costs of its premises on Wharf Road. The charity also receives a number of anonymous donations from other charities and individuals and sometimes bequests in wills, all of which they are extremely grateful for.

The origins of the Grantham Talking Newspaper go back to 1982, when a group of people comprising a mix of volunteers, including several blind or partially sighted people, with an interest in improving services for the visually impaired in the area, got together. The first tape was sent to 75 listeners in December 1983, lasted 60 minutes and was then produced once a fortnight, as it still is. It subsequently expanded to 80 minutes in length and CDs replaced tape cassettes as the recording medium. In order to secure the long-term future of the service the current premises on Wharf Road were purchased in 1997.

The Talking Newspaper continues to have a good team of volunteers, without whose dedication and good efforts the service would not be able to continue. However, Chairman Graham Cook points out that they are always keen to enlist the help of any new volunteers who would like to join the team and that they are particularly short at present of technician volunteers to join the existing rota for operating the recording equipment on Friday mornings. Would-be technicians need to have a basic familiarity with using computers but, beyond that, all training would be given.

Graham Cook explains that the blind and partially sighted are usually offered the Talking Newspaper service when they are first registered, or sometimes referred to them by organisations such as the South Lincs Blind Society, but new listeners are always welcome.

Any enquiries for becoming a new listener or volunteering to help produce the Grantham Talking Newspaper should be directed to deputy chairman John Williams on 01476 565447 or by visiting info@grantham-talking-newspaper.org.uk.

Grantham and District Talking Newspaper is a Registered Charity (number 515963) and in 2005 they were given The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service to the Community.