MEDIA RELEASE
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
For immediate release

Tasman Councillor amongst High Profile Leaders for Silent Leadership Challenge

Influential leaders from around New Zealand are going deaf for the day for the Silent Leadership Challenge to raise awareness around hearing impairment.

42 high profile leaders have signed up for the challenge on Friday 2 August, with Councillor, Judene Edgar of the Tasman District Council participating from the Nelson area. All participants will tackle three communication challenges in their workplace and one at home while wearing bright yellow hearing protectors to simulate deafness.

Judene Edgar was inspired to take part and raise money by The National Foundation for the Deaf‘s work on behalf of deaf and hearing impaired New Zealanders.

“Accessibility is about our ability to engage with, use, participate in, and belong to, the world around us. It's something that you mightn't even consider on a day-today-day basis, however for many of us, access to education, employment, and the community can be difficult and limited,” said Edgar.

“I consider it important to undertake such challenges, to walk a mile in someone else's shoes.”

With over $23,000 raised to-date, The Foundation is seeking others to get involved to meet their target of $100,000 in donations. All funds raised will go towards The National Foundation for the Deaf to fund its advocacy and support work on behalf of deaf and hearing impaired New Zealanders, and its work to raise awareness of the need to prevent noise-induced loss hearing loss.

“We are absolutely delighted with the tremendous support to-date from a diverse range of leaders throughout New Zealand,” said The National Foundation for the Deaf CEO, Louise Carroll.

“But we’d love to see many more corporate and community leaders on board.”

To join the Challenge, leaders need to register online at www.silentleadershipchallenge.com and aim to raise funds by seeking sponsorship donations from people in their professional and social networks.
On the day of the Challenge, participants will be posting photos and personal stories online via the Foundation’s Facebook and Twitter pages, using the hash tag #silentleadershipchallenge.

Registrations close on Wednesday 31 July at 5:00pm.

All information on the event and cause can be found at www.silentleadershipchallenge.com.

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