MEDIA RELEASE
Tuesday, 23 July 2013
For immediate release

High Profile Canterbury Leaders Sign up 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 three leaders from the Canterbury region participating on the day. All participants will tackle three communication challenges in their workplace and one at home while wearing bright yellow hearing protectors to simulate deafness.

Leaders from Canterbury area are Hon Ruth Dyson MP, Mayor of Waimakariri and CEO of Southern Hospitality Ltd, Andy Doherty.

Andy Doherty 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.

“We have family friends who live with deafness - this is a great cause to support and I am ready for the challenge,” said Doherty.

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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