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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-07-05 Daily Xml
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Golden Eye To Eye Ball

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (15:19): Today, I would like to talk about the Golden Eye to Eye Ball which was held at the Stamford Grand at Glenelg last Saturday. I would like to make particular comment about the extremely hard work of the woman responsible for the evening. Her name is Raj Vasan. She is the CEO of Eye to Eye. I would like to quote her opening remarks in the evening's program:

My mission is to ensure as many people as possible know about Eye Play Sport, what we do and the people we assist…

[Eye Play Sport is there] to raise funds to finance recreation, sport and associated projects to ensure blind and vision impaired people of all ages have opportunities to fulfil their dreams.

She thanked the board of Eye Play Sport. I am sure there is a great number of them—they are not listed in the program. She noted their tireless work and input into making the event the success it is and the work that they continue to do. She especially thanked Phil Smith, Cleo Cooper, Victor Velgush, Matthew Cooper and Dan Kuss, who are members of the Eye 2 Eye subcommittee that put on the ball.

She also thanked the major sponsors: Fox Creek Wines, Skill Hire, CMI Toyota and Lexus of Adelaide, ANZ, Graham's Jewellers, Kiwanis Club of Glenelg and the talented people who performed on the evening: Jyoti Singh, Blue Raine, Kristin Lester and Sigurdur Thor Sigurdsson and Annalisa Zoanetti. They included the Lindy Hip Big Band. One of the band members is a member of one of my local Rotary clubs, so it was really terrific to see him and all his mates performing there on the night. There were also vocalists and a great duo of Latin American dancers. The evening was emceed by the wonderful Alice Monfries. There was much fun and enjoyment on the night and dancing at the very end.

Eye 2 Eye made several presentations on the evening. One was the Karen Cornaggia Memorial Scholarship. This year, the male winner was Stephen Palmer. In 2016, Stephen obtained a Certificate III in Business Administration at Elizabeth TAFE, and today he is an admin support officer at the Department for Communities and Social Inclusion, where he works very closely with minister Leesa Vlahos. I am glad that she is here to hear me say this. In itself, that is an impressive achievement—

The SPEAKER: The member for Florey will not use a member's Christian name—

Ms BEDFORD: I am disgusted. I am very sorry.

The SPEAKER: —and surname because it tends to disorderliness.

Ms BEDFORD: Leave it for today, and I will not be disorderly anymore—the Minister for Disabilities. This is an impressive achievement for a young man who is blind, but it is on the sporting field where Stephen has amassed an even more impressive resume of international accomplishments. He epitomises what Eye Play Sport is all about and he has grabbed every opportunity presented to him with both hands. He is very interested in cricket and was very happy to speak to Alice Monfries' husband, Cameron, on the night.

The female winner of the award was Alana Tiller, who was born with oculocutaneous albinism, which means she has a very severe vision impairment. She is legally blind with poor visual acuity and other vision challenges, including nystagmus, severe photophobia, optic nerve hypoplasia and no stereopsis (no depth perception). At only eight years old, she was identified as having a bit of a talent for goalball and she has gone on to represent the state. She has attended five Australian goalball championships, winning two gold medals, three bronzes and countless medals in three school sport association competitions. She was selected by St John's Grammar School this year to compete in non-para sprint and relay events at interschool competitions as at her school sports day she ran the fastest 100 metres of all the 14-year-old girls.

The Eye Play Sport Perpetual Trophy for Hall of Fame Inductee 2017 was Rosemary Penn, who is probably very well known to a lot of members here. Along with her husband, Malcolm, she was one of the first people I met who had anything to do with vision impairment in this state. Unfortunately, Malcolm has passed away. Rosemary absolutely stole the show on the night with an outrageous routine where she put on a tiara and had a very plummy English accent. Her commitment to blind sport over the years is exemplary.

It gives me great pleasure to commend all those people and note them here in the house, but I also wish to say how sad I am that the South Australian Blind Bowlers Association, a group which I have been a patron of for many years, has unfortunately ceased its operation, or it had the last time I heard. Most of the members were advanced in years and unable to fund the travel for both the guide and the bowler to go for competition. I had hoped that younger bowlers would take up the sport, but that has not happened. Congratulations and thanks to everyone who was involved with the South Australian Blind Bowlers Association over the years.

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