Attitude Awards finalist is making a difference

Attitude Awards finalist is making a difference

When Petronella Spicer (57) was diagnosed with an eye condition resulting in blindness, she was supported by the Blind Foundation. For more than a decade she has dedicated her time and energy into giving back to the foundation that assisted her.

The Christchurch woman is a finalist in the Making a Difference category in the 2014 Attitude Awards. The national awards celebrate the excellence and achievements of Kiwis with a disability.

Petronella was 35 when she was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a degenerative eye condition that left her totally blind. Four years later she became a member of the Blind Foundation and since then has played a pivotal role in helping the foundation grow its services. In 2012 she took up a Volunteer Services Coordinator role with the foundation.

Under Petronella’s stewardship, significant improvements have been made to the services available to clients in the upper South Island. Volunteer recruitments have increased, including the number of volunteer drivers and recreational activities such as lunch groups and bus trips.

Outside of paid work, Petronella and her guide dog Fletcher are heavily involved in raising awareness and funds for the Red Puppy Appeal and Blind Week campaigns. When the mother of three and grandmother of five isn’t busy with her family she plays goalball and is a keen tramper – an activity she says would not be possible without the foundation’s volunteer guides.

Pentronella says she is thrilled and surprised to be an Attitude Award finalist. “I just love helping members to be able to carry on their lives as independently as possible,” she says.

She will find out if she’s a Making a Difference Award winner at a black-tie gala on World Disability Day, December 3 at Auckland’s Viaduct Events Centre.

There are eight categories in the 2014 Attitude Awards: Sport Performer of the Year, Courage in Sport, Artistic Achievement, Youth, Spirit of Attitude, the Attitude ACC Employer Award, Making a Difference award and the inaugural Attitude Junior Award. The overall winner of the Attitude ACC Supreme Award is selected from the category winners and a People’s Choice winner and a Hall of Fame inductee are also announced on the night.

Attitude Awards Trustee Dan Buckingham, a member of the elite national wheelchair rugby team the Wheel Blacks, says: “This is such an exciting time for everyone at Attitude Pictures because we find out who the finalists are. We have started travelling the country to film the finalists and even though this is the seventh year their stories continue to amaze us.”

Dan encourages everyone to visit AttitudeLive.com, an innovative web platform created by Attitude Pictures, in early November to see the short films of the finalists and to vote for the person most deserving of the coveted ‘People’s Choice Award.’

The Making a Difference award is sponsored by the Ministry of Health. Other sponsors supporting the awards include: Drake Medox, Invacare, Barfoot and Thompson, IHC Foundation, Westpac, Air New Zealand and Wayne Francis Charitable Trust.

Chief Executive of ACC Scott Pickering says ACC is proud to be principal sponsor of the awards for the seventh year, including sponsorship of the Attitude ACC Employer Award and the Attitude ACC Supreme Award.

"I'm really looking forward to this year's Attitude Awards, which are a significant event on New Zealand's calendar. Through celebrating excellence in the disability community and the important contributions made by New Zealanders with disabilities, the awards have the power to shift perceptions and to enhance lives."

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