AUSTRALIAN tennis star Lleyton Hewitt may have done the Spastic Society of Victoria a favour when he called an umpire a spastic during an international tournament earlier this year.
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The society told the audience at The Courier 2001 Debutante of the Year in Ballarat on Saturday night that Hewitt's comments had prompted many within the organisation to agree that the time had come for a name change.
The audience heard that the society had decided to rename itself Scope Ltd, not as an acronym but to more accurately reflect the society and the hopes shared by the organisation and its clients.
The name change had been under consideration for two years, and Hewitt's outburst was the turning point for some members who weren't totally convinced it was necessary, the audience heard.
The society's chief executive officer Vici Funnell agreed.
''The word 'spastic' has hindered us in many ways in recent years,'' she said.
''It has been misused and is often traded as an insult. Some younger parents who have children with disabilities have refused to use our services because they did not wish their children to be labelled as spastic,'' Ms Funnell said.
The Debutante of the Year is an annual fundraiser for the Spastic Society in Ballarat.
On Saturday night, Gemma Huckstepp was named The Courier Debutante of the Year for 2001.
Her partner for the evening, Luke Sizeland, was named Squire of the Year.
Twenty debutantes have been raising money for the past eight weeks as part of their commitment to the event and finished with more than $12,000 for Calkendren, a respite facility in Ballarat for families of children with a disability.
The debutantes and their partners were:
Tess Tweedale and Andrew Beyerle, Jacqui Gerick and Jarrod Waight, Elizabeth Radisich and Luke Santa-Maria, Melany Braybrook and Julian Alban, Aliesha Robertson and Kane Tolliday, Belinda Phelps and Ryan Woolfe, Cindy Picone and Greg Parker, Elizabeth Liddicoat and Timothy Boyle, Katherine O'Shea and Nicolas Frichot, Faith Cassell and Michael Bradley, Yvonne Porter and Matthew Cameron, Emma Kennedy and Jai Nunn, Shannon Smith and Mark Lyle, Jessica Brayshaw and Ashley Allan, Alexcia Waldron and Liam Caldwell, Alisha-Louise Freestone and Glenn Mattei, Miranda Prato and Steven Gray, Stacey Butler and Ashley Trounson, Deneale Skewes and Nathan Wren, Gemma Huckstepp and Luke Sizeland.
