Born in 1939, Avis was the only child of Ernie and Ellen Bell. Despite being part of a small family, life for Avis was far from quiet. Her parents ran the busy Bell’s Cash Store on Rangitikei Street, and at school she was popular and outgoing. Indeed, Avis often found herself searching for quiet moments and would hide away with a book whenever she could.

As well as their family business, the Bells had a house at Foxton Beach. Up until the mid-1950s, Foxton Beach was the only place in the Manawatū with a public skating rink, and it was here that Avis discovered the sport. But with no coaches in the area, Avis and other skaters had to learn from books, each other, and practice.

Eventually, Avis’s amateur training started paying off. She joined the burgeoning Manawatū skating club began dancing with Ian Goodjohn. In 1953 at Whangarei, she and Ian won the first ever National  title for Manawatū in the Glide Waltz. Avis brought home five trophies that year – an impressive achievement for a self-taught skater so early in her career.

The 1953 contest was not just a year of big wins, but a year in which Avis introduced herself to the skating community as a person of kindness and integrity. Among the many prizes awarded to Avis that year was one that belonged to someone else: overall winner among Junior Girls. Avis knew she had not been the top skater in that field and wrote to the New Zealand Roller Skating Association, asking them to correct their error. Officials responded by awarding the Junior Girls’ prize to the correct winner, but Avis still won the day. She received a new prize for ‘Best Sportswoman’ and in doing so, set a new standard for the culture and expectations of New Zealand skating.

The grace and kindness for which Avis became known in the skating world was true of her character outside the rink, too. Those who knew her as a young person would tell of how she would come home from school hungry, because she had given her lunch to someone who had none.  Avis’s parents, Ernie and Ellen, encouraged this sort of behaviour in every way they could. Ernie dedicated his own spare time to support his daughter’s passion, setting up Manawatū’s first indoor skating club.

It wasn’t long before Avis’s competitive skating career reached new heights. At the World Congress Skating championships in 1959, she was spotted by President of the American Skating Association and invited to become a coach. For the ten months that followed, Avis was on a whirlwind trip of the United States, learning everything she could about coaching. At the completion of her coaching course, Avis was recognised as the top of her cohort and immediately turned professional. She went on to became a founding member of  the International Roller Skating Trainer Association and held numerous leadership roles within New Zealand skating. Her pupils were equally as successful, with eight of them making World Championships between 1973 and 1987. Six were from the Manawatū.