We could acquaint people with guide dogs at another fantastic event: on Blue Lantern Day in Tatabánya a lot of people were interested in our team. Brendon, a guide dog-in-training and Daimond, a demonstrator dog enthusiastically wagged their tails as they led volunteers through people walking in Vértes Center.

After this major experience came the next challenge: introducing oneself to our visually impaired colleague, who wrote the names of every brave volunteer in Braille. Why a challenge? A sighted person makes an eye contact with whom they speak. However, it does not work in case of a visually impaired person. Most people went to my visually impaired colleague, looked at him and greeted him, but he did not greet them back, because he did not know in the crowd that the greeting was addressed to him. Then together we learnt that if we address a visually impaired person, we should always tap them on the shoulder or the hand, as in this case, so they will know that we are talking to them.

After a shaky start many people asked our colleague how he can manage in everyday life blindly and how his guide dog can help him. One of our volunteers, Bea also joined us in the event with her guide dog, Cassie, a beautiful chocolate brown Labrador, who received a lot of caresses and stroking until the end of the program.

Thanks to everyone for this great afternoon!