In March 2016 START formally marked its twenty first birthday with a party and celebration for some of our friends and supporters.
Around sixty people gathered at the home of current trustee and generous host Suzanne Purdy and her husband Peter in Epsom.
The evening was an opportunity for past trustees, ambassadors and staff members to catch up. START ambassadors Royce Willis and Ian Grant were in attendance along with past employees, and trustees and long term supporters of START. Manager Janelle Irvine is optimistic about the future for START. “We see huge potential in our group programmes due to the sense of community they create for our clients and this is an area we are focusing on to build a sustainable future for our organisation.”
Janelle also paid tribute to the commitment and dedication of longstanding Chairman Nigel Whiteman and current Speech Language Therapist Roz Young who have served START for many years. “The sense of family START has created is very important to us and we’re proud of our close supportive community”
START was established in 1995 by a small group of committed and motivated people which included speech language therapists, people who stuttered and families of children who stuttered. June Garden and Vivienne Mills were instrumental in forming the Stuttering Treatment and Research Trust when the District Health Board stopped providing treatment through its outpatient services.