Brittany Packer (participant)
*Theme(s) of your group/project
*Nature Conservation, *Others
*Massage
My name is Brittany Packer and I live in Nelson, New Zealand. Ever since I was little, I have loved and cared for the environment. When I was only 8 years old, I tarted my own club for saving animals and the Earth, which I called Lifesavers. Now I am 14, and Lifesavers has grown into a large, successful organization with youth members from all over the world. Our international members can talk over our website which I set up, www.jeanapacker.com/lifesavers. Here they can also read environmental stories, hear updates in Lifesavers, and get ideas for new projects. Our local members have weekly meetings where we discuss new plans and actions to take to improve our local environment.
Lifesavers group covers many aspects in protecting our Earth. In the past few years we have done numerous activities for many different causes. We have campaigned against the destruction of the rainforest, as well as stopping the use of Styrofoam trays in our school cafeteria. I organize lots of beach clean-ups, and we often volunteer at local animal shelters. We also carry out petitions, like when I wrote to the government about the horrible killing of the fish Orange Roughy. Lately, I have been collecting names over Lifesavers website so I can send a petition to the main governments of the world about whaling in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary.
We have also raised a great quantity of money for environmental groups and causes. It was a great success to send the proceeds of a bake sale, $434, to the World Wildlife Fund for gorillas, and when a school raffle raised over $600 for the endangered Florida Panther. Recently I have been raising money to buy toys for the native New Zealand bird, the Kea. These curious and inquisitive birds often get bored and restless at zoos, and we hope the toys we buy will be educating and amusing to the wonderful creatures.
My latest project has not, however, been with my Lifesavers group. I am the leader of a group of 4 girls my age, and we call ourselves the Green Teens. Green Teens aim is to reduce plastic bags in our local area by promoting Eco-Bags. We have attained a grant from the Council of $620 to continue our project. We believe we need to educate the community and local supermarkets to carry Eco-Bags or another environmentally friendly alternative to plastic bags. We have made stickers, flyers and prepared a number of other ways to educate and remind the community about Eco-Bags. We have a 'kids and their parents day' planned at a local zoo where kids can paint free Eco-Bags and parents can learn about them. And we gathered hundreds of names in a petition to convince the supermarkets that people prefer environmentally aware supermarkets.
Already we are seeing success in our project. Our latest surveys show that the number of plastic bags has decreased, and a few more people are bringing Eco-Bags. However, this is only the beginning, the Green Teens will continue their project until we see some drastic changes towards a more sustainable community. We hope that one day our area will be plastic bag free.
I have big dreams to continue my work with Lifesavers and plan to work with the environment all of my life. The conference was an amazing experience to build on my dreams, and to meet so many great kids who I now keep in contact with. For more information you can visit my website, www.jeanapacker.com/lifesavers, or email me at lifesaversclub@gmail.com. Remember that unless we do something soon, our environment may be drastically changed forever. We must protect and preserve this precious planet.'
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Brittany Packer
*Contact person
Brittany Packer
britpacker@fastmail.fm
lifesaversclub@gmail.com
*URL of Web site of your group/project
http://www.jeanapacker.com/lifesavers
http://www.fastmail.fm
