The Spina Bifida Foundation of Victoria is a not-for-profit organisation founded in the mid 1990s by a group of parents, physiotherapists and doctors. The Spina Bifida Foundation offers a number of programs, services and information to its members and the broader community. Its aim is to support people living with spina bifida many of them who are “able to lead full, active and independent lives regardless of the varying levels of permanent physical and/or intellectual disabilities”, says Elizabeth Logan, Executive Director of Spina Bifida Foundation of Victoria.

One of the biggest events on the Spina Bifida Foundation’s calendar is its ‘Night of Celebrations’, which is held yearly every November. It “celebrates the accomplishments of members over the past 12 months and provides an opportunity for the Spina Bifida Foundation to showcase to our sponsors and others that have provided financial assistance what has been achieved during the year”, says Elizabeth Logan. Further, she says, “it’s an event where all staff, the Board and members are fully involved and, as such, it’s necessary to have volunteers external to the Spina Bifida Foundation to assist.”

This year, one such volunteer was Justin Marshall from ANZ, an amateur photographer who has been gradually developing his skills and portfolio of images through assisting with projects such as this. Justin says, “I assisted the Spina Bifida foundation with photographing their AGM/Presentation evening. This involved pre meetings, a site visit, and the actual photography on the evening and post production. In addition to processing the images, I also edited together a short AV clip that will be available on YouTube and also iPhones and iPods.”

His work is “an important task so that there is a pictorial record of the night which can then be used in future newsletters, annual reports, power point presentations and other promotions” says Elizabeth Logan who reveals “Justin was very enthusiastic about assisting the Spina Bifida Foundation”.

Justin says, “this project attracted me, as it was a good opportunity to help a worthwhile organisation build up their library of images for further promotion. I think this program is a great initiative that assists community organisations, while also reinforcing the social commitment from ANZ in supporting me to do this.”

All of his promotions “will be loaded on to the Spina Bifida Foundation website” says Elizabeth Logan “and will create a historical visual collection that will support our written materials to show people what the Spina Bifida Foundation does and what can be achieved by those with spina bifida”. For Justin himself, he says, he found the experience “very rewarding” and that the Spina Bifida foundation was “great to work with, and gave me clear direction and support to complete the project.” He further says, on a personal level, “I met many inspirational people during the night, in particularly John who I photographed with his Gold medal from the Paralympics. I would certainly recommend volunteering as a worthwhile and rewarding experience.”