Ten guide dog puppies are taking their first steps towards changing the lives of people with sight loss thanks to staff at Morrisons Dumfries.
The store is one of eleven Morrisons branches to rally together to raise an incredible £80,000 for the Guide Dogs charity’s Name a Puppy Scheme.
The latest four-legged recruits to begin training are siblings Star and Mitch, four month old golden retrievers.
Over the past two years, staff at Morrisons have organised a host of events, including sponsored walks and cycles, bag packs and collections, and even a sponsored head shave.
As part of the Name a Puppy Scheme, the teams receive photos of their sponsored pups and are sent regular ‘pupdates’ from the charity covering the puppies first year of training.
Keith Brownlie from Morrisons said: “Giving back to our communities is important to us at Morrisons. Our colleagues have really gotten behind fundraising for Guide Dogs and we are proud to be making a real difference to local people living with sight loss. The Name a Puppy scheme has been a fantastic way for us to see how our fundraising has been making an impact. Receiving photographs and updates on our named puppies, as well as the opportunity to meet them, has provided us with an insight into the charity, and has been a great motivator for our staff.”
Kyla McVicar, Business Development Manager at Guide Dogs, added: “We can’t thank the team at Morrisons Dumfries enough and we are truly grateful to everyone involved for their continued support. £80,000 is an incredible amount to raise and it will make a massive difference to Guide Dogs.
“Guide Dogs relies on fundraising and donations so it’s only through the support of the local community, and businesses like Morrisons, that we can continue our life-changing work for people living with sight loss. Well done and a huge thank you to each of the Morrisons stores involved, as well as their customers.”
Guide Dogs’ ambition is a future where every person with sight loss has the confidence to live their life to the full. Over 360,000 people in the UK are registered blind or partially sighted and of these 35,000 are children or young people. In total over 2 million people in the UK live with some form of sight loss.
Guide Dogs purpose is to provide life-changing services for the independence of people living with sight loss, and also for their friends and family.
