Talking Newspaper is saved by new recruits

Sleaford and District Talking newspaper had announced before Christmas that it was struggling since lockdown to find enough volunteers to keep its vital weekly service going.

The charity provides blind and visually impaired people with weekly recordings of readings from local newspapers.

Teams comprise a leader, a recording technician, readers and a copyer, but the charity was two team leaders and two technicians short, setting itself a deadline of the end of January to recruit or cease to exist.

Howard Sanders from the charity was delighted to announce after the publicity campaign in December, with the Sleaford Standard’s assistance, sufficient volunteers have come forward to be able to re-establish the number of recording teams needed to make the service viable.

He said: “We gave ourselves until the end of January to decide whether to close or continue. The final piece in the jigsaw did not arrive until Wednesday last week when we filled our remaining recording technician role. We had 14 enquiries from which nine people have joined us to fill the various roles. We’re particularly pleased to have another sixth form school team. In addition to the existing Carres/High School team we now have a very enthusiastic and able team from St George’s. Our listeners tell us how they love the young voices so this is a bonus.”

They now want to extend their services. Recordings are available on the internet as well as via a memory stick in the post, and the charity would like to offer the service to anyone who may have problems, long or short term, in reading their local papers, such as stroke sufferers, Parkinson’s Disease sufferers or any other disabilities.

l Anyone interested can contact Howard on 01529 414047. There is no charge and he will happily give details.