2017 School Magazine

SCHOOL SERVICE 2017

of the rainbow using our handprints. Worldwide, the rainbow flag is known as a symbol of hope, strength and unity. In the middle of the canvas an equal sign was embedded to show that we are willing to accept each other no matter how people identify, regardless of their race, spirituality, gender, sexuality and ethnicity and to conquer the adversity that is unfortunately still evident today, even in Australia. Despite all the events and special days, arguably our biggest task this year was selecting the School Charity. This decision for us was easily made as we both share a strong passion for supporting the refugee community in Brisbane. We ultimately decided that our School Charity for 2017 would be the Romero Centre. The Romero Centre is a place that offers friendship and support to refugees and asylum seekers in Brisbane. Located just over the river in Dutton Park, the Romero Centre aims to provide a place of respect, acceptance, hospitality and comfort to all refugees in Brisbane. They provide special programmes that enable support in terms of housing, education, employment, financial support as well as language lessons. The centre hopes to counter the social isolation that refugees might experience within our community. When spreading awareness on behalf of the centre we wanted to embrace the mindset of the Romero Centre’s founder ‘Faize El-Higizi’ who talks about the importance of moving past tolerance and into compassion towards those seeking refuge, and we hoped that our School community would join us by embracing the Student Council goals of gratitude, celebrating diversity and promoting teamwork to help build compassion and awareness for this local and global issue. Through Student Council fundraising this year we have been able to support the centre by donating grocery vouchers, specific food items, stationery and monetary donations. As Service Captains we have had the pleasure of representing the service program in a school so dedicated to giving back to the community. Each year the girls at Brisbane Girls Grammar School continue to support individuals and groups in their community

Service has always played an important role at Brisbane Girls Grammar School whether it be through fundraising, donating goods or spreading awareness of social needs issues. As the 2017 Service Captains we hoped to continue to build the spirit of service throughout the School. More specifically, this year we wanted to emphasise the importance of giving time to the community to show your service contribution as opposed to focusing on the fundraising element. It was this concept that we wanted our motto to encapsulate and promote. After long brainstorming afternoons filled with rhyming and synonym google searches we created our motto for the year: Giving Time Helps Others Shine. This motto has been exemplified throughout the year by girls who have dedicated their time to their community. Girls Grammar provides girls with many service opportunities in and outside of school to contribute to the community. The School currently offers sixteen service and charity groups and these are open to the girls to learn and discuss each group’s important cause. Each of our nine houses also decide on a charity to support for the year. House Charity funds are raised through Open Day stalls and other events throughout the year. These are examples of how Girls Grammar strives to promote the importance of giving back to our community. We have loved the service opportunities available at Girls Grammar from the early years and being elected as Service Captains provided us with the opportunity to show our passion and support for promoting service and important global issues throughout the School. White Blouse Day gave us the opportunity to consider how important it is to consider our own preventative healthcare, and that of those around us, as we promoted the need for research and self-care with respect to female gynecological cancers. Additionally, this year we celebrated diversity by incorporating pride into our Diversity Day, a day where we wanted to promote understanding and celebrate the different interests of people in our community, at School and beyond. On this day, BGGS hosted a Diversity Day forum were we welcomed a wonderful group of guest speakers to discuss their experiences and opinions on various topical issues. A canvas was also created to show our support for the LGBTQI+ community. The canvas was created by combining the six colours

which really shows the spirit of a true Grammar girl. ALICE DUNN 12E AND AYESHA KUMAR 12G 2017 SERVICE CAPTAINS

056 | SERVICE | BRISBANE GIRLS GRAMMAR SCHOOL 2017