Councillor remembered
A champion for the village of Ashhurst, for multicultural diversity and for breast cancer detection and treatment has been remembered by the Palmerston North City Council.
Helen Whitten was the first Ashhurst ward representative elected to the council after local body amalgamations in 1989, and served two terms before standing down to pursue her full-time work with Breastscreen Coast to Coast.
She was deeply involved in the suburb’s activities, its community newspaper, the building of its Village Valley Centre, development of its community house, and in Scouts, Plunket and Playcentre.
Palmerston North mayor Grant Smith honoured Whitten – who died aged 78 on December 22 – at a city council meeting on Wednesday describing her as determined and professional.
She chaired the council’s community development committee during her six-year stint on the council.
In that role she was instrumental in helping set up the Ethnic Council, a role she continued with as a volunteer for another 10 years.
The Ethnic Council, later the Multicultural Council, helped create Palmerston North’s annual Festival of Cultures.
Whitten was the secretary for the organisation rather than its public leader, and was widely credited for carrying out the background tasks that built in into a strong organisation that raised Palmerston North’s reputation as a diverse and inclusive community.
A radiographer by training, she was the team leader of the Breastscreen Coast to Coast service, which rolled out the free breast-screening programme to the central region, including the Chatham Islands.
Whitten was awarded a Queen’s Service Medal in 2005, and Rotary’s Paul Harris Fellowship in 2007.
Her late husband, Stuart, was also an Ashhurst identity who set up the Ashhurst Domain Cafe in 2005, which he ran until he was killed in a car accident in 2006.
She leaves behind Daniel and Di, Lance and Shelley, Bendall and Sam, Mara and their children.
A moment’s silence observed at the council meeting also honoured the memory of former councillor Gordon Cruden and theatre giant Pat Snoxell.