What a wonderful weekend we all enjoyed at the Blenheim Autumn Festival over the weekend of 30 September and 1 October. The Humanimal Trust tent with its high-pitched roof was situated in the walled garden and right next to a very ornamental pond with a fountain and a willow-weaved crocodile whose tail exited on the far side of the pond!
It was an idyllic setting, and a steady stream of show visitors came to enjoy the wonderful displays assembled by Sarah, Rachel and our wonderful team of volunteers, Paula, Liz, Lisa, and Katrina all wonderfully guided by Karen.
Christopher Lloyd gave two wonderful talks based on his book 'Humanimal' and captivated the audiences of children, parents and Grandparents in addition to the many companion dogs that filled and spilled out of the Humanimal tent.
The highlight was Noel’s talk on the Main stage. He instantly captivated the audience with his very human story of growing up in Ireland and how he became 'The Supervet' but why he wants to see One Medicine as the way the human and animal medical profession works together in the future and why reciprocity and working with patients with natural disease is better for animals and humans.
We raised awareness and funds, sold lots of 'Humanimal' books and had the chance to meet some of our supporters and chat with so many members of the public. The One Medicine message has found its way to new audiences during the weekend.
Rachel’s week had started way before the event. She told us “Not only was I there for the weekend, I arrived earlier in the week and taught three groups of children on Thursday and Friday as part of the pre-event. 'I taught three groups of Year 6 pupils (10–11-year-olds) choosing a topic from the Humanimal Book, written by Christopher Lloyd, to teach them about bees and how clever they are at communicating with each other. The activity for this session was to make a bee bookmark. On day two of the teaching sessions put on for local schools, there were three lessons for year 9 classes, who are 14 years of age. As they are older, the topic was focused on one of our key areas of focus in Humanimal Trust, Infection Control and antimicrobial resistance. They learned about viruses and bacteria, how they differ from each other and when we should and shouldn't be using antibiotics, as well as how a One Medicine approach is so important for human and animal health. Their practical task was to challenge their dexterity, fine motor skills and ability to follow instructions - they made an origami antibody'.
All the groups were great students, listened carefully and joined in with answering some tricky questions! I enjoyed getting back to teaching 'at the coal face' and seeing how well the lessons were received.
It was the first Humanimal event for Claire and Nigel and they were engaged in meeting people and helping them to sign up to the Humanimal Pledge along with our volunteers.