|
|
|
|
 |
| Wow, I won… |
I am absolutely delighted to be joining the 2007 Girls on Top team. I am excited about the opportunity to have an amazing adventure that shares my vision for supporting the conservation of significant wilderness areas and for inspiring women to follow their dreams.
Involvement with Girls on Top creates a wonderful synergy with my dedication to the transformation of women’s lives.
I joined the Women’s Circus when I was 29 and discovered the joy of acrobatics and women gaining strength individually and as a group. Since then I have experienced many years of working with women devising community circus shows and teaching circus skills. I enjoy working in a team with a common goal, and the benefits of bringing trust and good humour to this journey.
The mission that underpins this expedition excites me because it represents an opportunity to support an inspiring ecological project in a globally important ecosystem: something I have always aspired to do. The scholarship has enabled me to participate in a project that realises this ambition.
As a mother of two wonderful boys, parenting has been the focus of my life for more than 14 years. Now I am ready to move beyond, to enrich my life, expand my potential and contribution to the rest of the world. I want to experience the spectacular beauty of the wilderness, breathe in the possibilities and scale the heights of adventure!
I anticipate that this trip will enhance my internal strength and my sense of place in the world. I think it will strengthen my hope for transformation through ecological education and build my confidence to apply my skills to wider communities. I also think it will provide a valuable experience to connect with a project that I would love to sustain and support in the future.
Winning this scholarship has inspired me to encourage women of all ages to follow their dreams. I am involved in urban projects with women that currently struggle to share this hope, such as women in detention. This experience will provide me with renewed fervour to share the joy of climbing to the peaks of life and working together to reach the zenith.
This really is a dream come true.
| |
 |
| Adopt and Orphan - support the Amazon |
More than 12.5 million animals die or disappear each year through hunting and wildlife trade in the Amazon. The conservation projects supported by Girls on Top make a direct difference to individual animals rescued from poachers, hunters or orphaned through these and other threats to their environment and species. You can adopt an orphan living at either Zoo peru or the Amazon Animal Rescue Centre for a year and know that every cent of your tax deductable donation will support the entire family of rescued animals in the care of these unique organisations. read more... | |
 |
| Boys on the Side |
Sydney-sider, cafe owner, and obvious leader of his generation Richard Hull, has stepped up to the plate for blokes everywhere who wish they could join us. To celebrate and support our all-girl 200km expedition over 5000m this September, Richard (not usually an athlete) will run the epic City to Surf on behalf of our team. He is collecting sponsors to reach his own charity target which he will add to the Girls on Top fund raising kitty toward conservation and animal rescue in the Amazon.
Go Richard! You can check him out, send a hug or make a donation at his site, www.lovethefringe.com
| |
 |
| Art with Soul - support Beck! |
Check out the latest in portable or ‘postable’ art! Beck has designed and hand made gorgeous art cards and matching envelopes with ALL proceeds toward her fund raising target. Each card is sewn and handcrafted using a variety of found, natural and plant materials - from seed pods, woven grass, leaves, vintage kimono fabrics, lace and beads to recycled old clothes and tablecloths. Each is unique and supplies the recipient with information about our great cause, what the proceeds will achieve and that this contribution has been made in their honour. Beck hopes her cards will be a beautiful form of communication between loved ones, as well as an ongoing and integrity filled gift for a friend; a vital contribution toward global warming solutions in their name. Have a closer look at Beck’s cards and their intricate detail or order yours online now. read more... | |
 |
| Sea World, Gold Coast July 28 - Dolphin Night Show |
Working as a Dolphin Trainer at Sea World inspired Girl on Top, Marayka Kirby, to raise her funds for the Amazon with a special one-off Dolphin Cove 'Imagine' Night Show on the 28th July. It will be a breath-taking night of performances by dolphins,, entertainement and competitions supported by Girls on Top, sponsors and partners with prizes, raffles, treasures from the Amazon and wildlife experts to meet. Come and be dazzled - and help us make a difference to the protection of the Amazon wilderness. All profits go directly to Zoo Peru. Tickets are $20 for adults and $10 for children which includes canapes and one beverage. Call 133FUN (that's 133386) for bookings. Bookings are essential so please ring as soon as possible. Look forward to seeing you there :-) read more... | |
 |
| Living the dream... with Kathmandu |
They say that if we are bold, mighty forces will come to our aid. Just a few days before flying out to India in September mighty forces did indeed arrive for the Girls on Top team. They swooped down on wings of fleece and gortex, down and woolly socks from the wonderful people at Kathmandu who have embraced our project and become sponsors.
Girls on Top head for the Himalayas with kits full of Kathmandu gear and hearts even more sure that all our work this year, and our coming adventure really are proof that anything is possible, and hopefully inspiration to others to follow their own dreams .. especially the Big Ones. | |
 |
| News Flash from Zimbabwe |
The first Girls on Top expedition to Kilimanjaro in 2004 was inspired by the chance to make a difference to children at a tiny orphange in disaster-ravaged Zimbabwe. Our vision was to raise enough money to provide the little community with easy access to water, supporting their health, happiness, gardens, food supplies and animals. Miraculously, we not only exceeded our target of $15 000 in three months, but we survived the mountain too.
News this month is that engineers and planners at Lirhanzo Orphanage and through Australian charity Aid for Africa Down Under have been able to use those funds to provide water to not one, but eight Zimabwe villages... that's hundreds of lives changed by just three girls with a mission, and all of you who supported us.
As you read this, vegetables, flowers, chickens, cows, little hands, dusty windows, hot faces and baby bodies are all celebrating. Thank You! | |
 |
| New stories about us |
| Tess Dodd, fit and active, with a warm, direct, down-to-earth manner, was unaware that she was seeking a larger-than-normal challenge while casually reading a magazine over lunch at her job in education administration in Brisbane last August, but an article about Girls on Top and their yearly trek to a remote, high-altitude part of the world, caught her eye. read more... | |
 |
| One Giant Leap |
Welcome aboard, Jennifer Wright - a last minute addition to our team who has said a huge YES to the adventure and reminds us all that sometimes leadership is all about how we react to situations, and what choices we make in the moment.
Jen joins the team from Village Roadshow, taking a spot that became available just a month before we are due to head off. While the rest of the team have chosen to take the lead and to test their spirits after careful reflection, Jen has taken a true leap of faith. In a team of six women who have had six months to contemplate, prepare, train and agonise about the prospect of walking almost 200kms through the mighty Himalaya on the Tibetan plateau.... Jen has had less than a month to get her head (and her butt) into shape for the expedition.She is the first team member to ever take such a leap - and Girls on Top love her already! She has never trekked before, or experienced the dizzy altitudes and grueling distances we are setting off for on September 20. But when asked whether she could join the trip late in August she didn't have to think twice. By saying YES! and embracing the adventure, Jen has seized the extraordinary. You can follow her blog of the journey here online. | |
 |
| Girls on bottoms |
In a move that would make any marketing guru green with envy (if not pink with blush), Girl on Top Kelly Pearsall created a Public Relations opportunity of a lifetime for us last month. More than a dozen gorgeous, long-legged, wild-haired and debutante models not only paraded the new fashions of debut designers, Nisuoc, they marched Girls on Top knickers down the catwalk giving our new logo an eye-popping moment which we reckon achieved 100% brand awareness in the room of 400 ! | |
 |
| More than $20 000 raised for charity |
It's taken thousands of cookies, dozens of incense sticks, about a dozen models in Girls on Top knickers, the images of some of Sydney's great photographers and feather boa or two... for our 2006 team to raise more than $20 000 to support the Indigenous community in Ladakh.
Our funds will support a program which fosters and protects Indigenous customs, crafts, leadership and community in the remote Himalayan area, as well as paying a salary for a volunteer co-ordinator to arrange 2007 projects which promote learning and respect between subsistence and capitalist communities. Girls on Top have also facilitated funds to provide solar power and other renewable resources to the people of Ladakh - a gift that will enrich life there, and providing lasting improvement to the quality of work, life and play. A HUGE thank you to everybody who joined in, supported us and contributed. | |
|
|
|
|
|