Google gives 'Guinness' to the blind

We're always pleased to be invited in to meet with new organisations, whether schools, businesses or supermarkets, so when we were invited to spend time with the Google UK Legal Team at the end of last year, we were really excited. An opportunity to go into one of the world’s largest and most successful organisations and tell them about Guide Dogs, our aims and ambitions, was too good to miss.

Google are famous for encouraging creativity at work and taking a stroll through their London offices lived up to my expectations – deckchairs and beanbags filled the communal areas and in place of meeting rooms beach huts were lining the corridors as though it were the back drop to an episode of Baywatch.  The Google employees seem to take most of this in their stride.

The Google UK Legal team held a week of activities including bake sales, raffles and static bike rides (in a full guide dog suit - very hot work!). At the end of the week, we were pleased to join the Google staff together with guide dog owners, volunteers and puppies that had made the trip to London to spread the word about our life changing mobility services.

Event demonstrator Andy Guiel together with demo-dog Delphi, amazed the Google employees with a demonstration of some of the guiding abilities that our specially trained dogs posses. It’s always fun watching people who’ve never seen a guide dog demonstration before, and this time was no exception. The room was filled with joyful laughter and that sound that dog enthusiasts make when they see such a clever, well trained dog as Delphi - “Aaaaw…”

But amongst the jovial atmosphere, a serious message was being conveyed – guide dogs can make a huge difference to the lives of blind and partially sighted people, and it’s only thanks to the work of thousands of volunteers and donations by many more that Guide Dogs can maintain the level of service that we provide. This point was passionately expressed by Guide Dogs Community Engagement Officer and guide dog owner Dave Kent. With his heart felt speech towards the end of proceedings, Dave thanked Google for all the work that they put in to making their products accessible and for their brilliant fundraising efforts during the week (listen to an audio clip in the right-hand column of this page or on AudioBoo.fm ).

The Legal Team managed to raise £2,543 – an incredible effort which Google kindly agreed to match. The grand total became £5,086, enough to take part in our Name a Puppy scheme and a really help in getting more blind and partially sighted people mobile. Google has been voting on a name for a guide dog puppy and the front-runner is ‘Guinness’ after 'Guinness cakes' were the most popular selling item in their cake sale.

Simon Jones from Google UK Legal team said, “Guide Dogs is a great charity and we really enjoyed raising awareness of its importance and donating money that will go towards training a guide dog puppy. Since the event, I've been inundated with messages from Googlers telling me how much they loved meeting the dogs, owners, trainers and volunteers and generally how much fun they had on the night.  We loved working with the Guide Dogs team and can't wait to hear about the progress of our sponsored puppy!”

Being able to raise awareness to people that otherwise may never have known about the service we provide is a great opportunity for us. We’d like to say thank you to all the Guide Dogs volunteers who came to the event, and to the Google UK Legal team for organising.

Would your organisation like the opportunity to meet us? If you’d like know more about corporate partnerships please email corporates@guidedogs.org.uk or call or call 0870 240 6993.