2014 School Magazine

GECO HARRIET LOMAS (12O)

The main role of GECO (Grammar Environmental Conservation Organisation) is to raise awareness through practical activities and fundraisers for environmental issues on both a local and global scale. With the help of families, teachers and groundsmen, GECO girls and other students set off to Fig Tree Pocket on two occasions: for Clean Up Australia Day and National Tree Day, where we cleaned up our sports grounds and planted native tree species. We aimed to raise awareness of the dangers of excessive energy consumption through our Earth Hour photo competition, where girls sent in photographs of themselves participating in and celebrating the evening. Our main fundraiser for this year, however, was for World Environment Day. While the Story Bridge turned green, GECO conducted a tree fundraiser with all proceeds going towards tree planting in the North Queensland Daintree Rainforest. Every girl who donated a gold coin tied a ribbon onto our faux tree to symbolise all the trees that would be planted. To further contribute to this fundraiser we sold chilled elderflower cordial on Open Day. 2014 has been a very green, productive and fun year for GECO. ■ GRAMMAR GOES GREEN Four Grammar Goes Green events were held this year at our Fig Tree Pocket Sports Campus. A total of 720 native trees and shrubs have now been planted along the north eastern side of the lower oval at the Fig Tree Pocket Sports Campus. Staff and student volunteers from Brisbane Girls Grammar School and Brisbane Grammar School have all volunteered their time to help plant and water these trees purchased from Greening Australia. Volunteering at Grammar Goes Green is a very productive and social way to give your time to an activity that will benefit the environment and the outlook of our Sport Campus now and in the future.

We look forward to continuing our association with the Cubberla-Witton Catchment Network into 2015 and contributing to the natural flora and fauna of the area. At this point, a little rain will go a long way to the growth of our butterfly trail. ■

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