John Marshall gave grace and we tucked into our ample meal.
After our meal the quote was given by Ted Staite and the draw prize won by Reg Nott who recently celebrated his 69th wedding anniversary.
Our president, Gerald Hill, congratulated Reg and went on to welcome a new member, Joe Miles and a guest, Nick Johnston.
In fact we are always looking out for new members and anyone interested in joining our monthly group where members, after an excellent informal lunch, can listen to speakers on a diversity of topics. Initially they should get in touch with Richard Adams on 01363 84411 or email: [email protected] .
Brian Threllfall then gave us some updates on the health of members, beginning by mentioning the death of Robin Langhorne, a very long-term member and a real friend to so many people in Crediton.
Brian went on to say that Rachel Maycock had written to him to say how touched she had been by the flowers (and good wishes) that members had sent her after her recent illness.
Our speaker was introduced by Peter Bryan. It was his old friend, from Crediton Lions, Eric Parkes.
The subject of Eric’s talk was the history and development of Crediton’s Talking Newspaper. This had its origins in talks given to Lions Clubs by Hellen Keller, the deaf and blind American lady who inspired so many people in the world particularly disabled ones in the 1950s. She had mentioned the inability of deaf people to keep up-to-date with local news and the idea of a talking newspaper was formed.
The original Crediton Talking Newspaper, founded in the early 1980’s but had to close in 2012 largely because it was recorded on tape, which had brought all sorts of problems to recipients.
In 2013 a re-vamped newspaper was launched. It is recorded on memory sticks that are played back on easily used machines. Equipping every user with a machine was the major capital cost of a project that now has around 50 users (each of whom has been given a machine).
Crediton Lions had donated £500 to start the ball rolling and with other help from local authorities, the "Courier" (which donated 100 of the memory sticks that are sent weekly to members) and the Post Office – which does not charge any postage costs.
Before the launch there was a large publicity campaign to build a client base. The area covered by the base is roughly the distribution area of the "Courier". The newspaper is also sent to people that have left the area but want to keep in touch with things Kyrtonian (this is one reason why notices of bereavement are always included).
The whole operation of producing the newspaper has become very slick. Proofs of Friday’s "Courier" are received on a Thursday, readers cull the items that they think should appear in the final reading and a team of readers record about an hour in length of local news (Frank Letch, our mayor, was one of the original readers).
The stick always starts with the front page articles and different voices are used to avoid boredom. Bert Jewell contributes a gardening column every week. The memory sticks also contain up to 13 hours of extracts from national magazines covering all sorts of areas of interest including “Readers Digest”, women’s magazines, gardening magazines etc.
Tiverton’s Talking newspaper has been going for 31 years. Eric’s hope is that 31 years hence Crediton’s Talking Newspaper will still be flourishing.
Eric said that thanks must go to the Crediton public, the "Crediton Courier" and the clients, the readers, the Post Office and many others for building up and sustaining the newspaper.
Our speaker was thanked for his very interesting talk on a most worthwhile enterprise by Richard Adams (who had also been involved with the newspaper as a reader).
The president, Gerald Hill concluded the meeting by proposing the toast "to the next time".
Keith Barker
• If you know someone who would benefit by receiving Crediton Talking Newspaper, please email: [email protected] or call in at the "Crediton Courier" office on 01363 774263.
Comments
This article has no comments yet. Be the first to leave a comment.