New Plunket President in centenary year
Media Release
16 May 2007
Jpg attached – Carol
Becker
New Plunket President in centenary year
Carol Becker of Ahaura on the West Coast has been appointed New Zealand President of the Royal New Zealand Plunket Society; she has been vice president since 2003.
Mrs Becker will be the 22nd president since the society was founded in 1907. She succeeds Mrs Kaye Crowther of Invercargill in continuing the Plunket goal of ‘giving every child the best start in life’.
Carol Becker has a background in banking and, together with her husband Russell, operates a rural transport and farming business in the Grey Valley. The couple have three teenage children.
Like most new mothers in New Zealand, Carol Becker’s involvement with Plunket began with the birth of her first child. She has a 19-year association of working in her community for Plunket. She was elected to the Ahaura School Board of Trustees in 1992 and chaired the Board when the school merged with three others in the Grey Valley. She was co-opted to the continuing board which oversaw the planning of a new education facility at Ahaura, incorporating an early childhood education centre on the same site.
During her term as president, Carol is keen to develop and strengthen Plunket’s parenting education programmes, PEPE and Tots and Toddlers, both of which have strong links to local communities and the society’s volunteer network. She is also wants to progress planning for continuous access to health services for all children once they start school, particularly in rural areas.
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