2015 School Magazine

ECUMENICAL COFFEE BRIGADE ELIZABETH COX (12R)

The Ecumenical Coffee Brigade (ECB) is a voluntary organisation that supports homeless and marginalised people within the Brisbane CBD. They have a van that serves food and warm drinks on the street every day of the year. BGGS has been involved with ECB since 2009 — every couple of months, a group of senior students volunteer to make hundreds of sandwiches to be distributed by the van.

The School also organises an annual Food Donation Drive in Term I. It was astounding to see how enthusiastically the School community responded — this year’s haul provided enough food to cover the three large tables in the Annie Mackay Room! As the school coordinator, I have heard really positive feedback from both the girls and the organisation. After a morning shift in the ECB kitchen, the girls told me they felt enlightened to know how little time it takes to make a meaningful difference to those in need. I look forward to seeing how the School’s involvement with ECB continues to grow as the school community helps provide food for those in Brisbane who need it the most.

GECO ANGELA GOGGIN (12G) The efforts of the Grammar Environmental

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Conservation Organisation (GECO) network for 2015 were focused both on supporting the School service theme, ‘Environment’, and participating in conservation and preservation activities throughout the year. In our weekly meetings we discussed issues such as whaling, mining, recycling and our everyday efforts to lessen the School’s carbon footprint. The Grammar Goes Green tree plantings held at Rangakarra gave us the opportunity to involve the wider Girls Grammar community and further encourage future ecosystems to blossom at this campus. A competition to design a new logo, won by Katherine Lomas (12O), has given

us a great new look and this will be used in years to come. Our coconut ice and elderflower cordial stall and our display at Open Day were very successful in raising environmental awareness as well as funds for the Rainforest Rescue, a not-for-profit Australian charity protecting and restoring rainforests in areas of the Daintree and Tasmania. We hope that with the contributions made as a group this year, we have helped encourage the BGGS community to become more aware of the important environmental issues we face as a School and society.

SERVICE