The South African Guide Dog Association got tales wagging with their annual family fun day.
The yearly fun day, which was held on 29 July this year, is a chance for the public to support the organisation and its work in providing guide dogs and service dogs to those in need. The event was hosted at Gladys Evans Training Centre on Wroxham Road in Paulshof. The grounds were fun-filled with a tea garden, beer garden, kid’s play zone and lots of stalls selling goodies to the crowd. There was also a potjiekos competition for hungry attendees.
“Today is our annual fun day, which we hold every year, to raise much-needed funds and awareness for the South African Guide Dogs Association,” explained Nadia Vermaark, the head of marketing for the organisation.
“As we don’t receive funding from the government, we rely on donations from the public to raise and care for the animals.
“We don’t just raise guide dogs, we also raise service dogs, and to raise one dog costs about R100 000, so we need all the help we can get.”
Between 800 and 1 000 members of the public were expected to attend on the day, and Vermaak said a big thank you to not only the public visitors but also the organisations, businesses and individuals who made the day possible.
A special arena also saw performances from the South African Lipizzaners, a demonstration from the guide dogs, and even a dog race during the day.
On the other side of the venue, the smell of cooking attracted visitors to the potjiekos competition, which saw six different teams cooking up a storm.
“We’re not actually professional cooks or anything, we just like to cook and wanted to support today. We’ll finish cooking and then sell the food at about R50 a serving,” said Anna van Roojen, who created a lamb shank potjiekos together with Carla Rittonori.
“We became familiar with the organisation because we actually raised our first puppy for them last year, and we’ll be raising a second puppy soon.”
The competition was judged by Adrian Vigus-Brown, from the African Pride Hotel in Melrose Arch, as well as comedian Chris Forrest. “I’m personally judging based on taste, I don’t care so much about the presentation. What I really want to see is soft meat and strong flavours, because that’s what the potjiekos is all about,” concluded Vaus-Brown.
Details: www.guidedog.org.za; nadiav@guidedog.org.za; 011705 3512.
