active supporters

Gerald Kaufman MP (far right) joins Manchester supporters in planting an apple tree to oppose the third runway

From small acorns do mighty oak trees grow. Okay, we've been planting apple trees instead of oaks, but the sentiment certainly rings true for the Airplot tree planting ceremonies being held up and down the country.

If you've been visiting our website regularly, you may have spotted a small but significant change which occurred a couple of weeks ago, when a new 'Community' link appeared in the navigation box to your left. That weeny grey box leads to a whole new section of the website we've been developing over the past year, namely the new online home for our network of active supporter groups across the country.

Richard is a network developer in our active supporters unit, and is next up in the blog relay, a whistle-stop tour of Greenpeace staff here in the UK. Click here to catch up on the other entries.

On a good day in the office I struggle in bleary eyed and desperate for a coffee to fight off the sleep deprivation.

It’s amazing that the blog baton has actually reached me - although I've worked for Greenpeace for over 14 years, I am only in the UK office once a month - I work from home in Manchester (England’s greatest city!)

I have one of the best jobs in the world. I'm the Network Developer for the North, one of five staff in the Active Supporters Unit. Active Supporters are the people who support Greenpeace with their own precious time and energy, taking the campaign messages to the public on the streets and at local events in their stylish green tabards, going to visit their MPs, giving talks, taking risks on direct actions. They are inspiring and brilliant people, often working full-time in demanding jobs, then giving their weekends and evenings to Greenpeace.

My official job at Greenpeace is in supporter services, working with Chris and Graham, and seeing first hand the wonderful donations, letters and e-mails that arrive at Canonbury Villas each day.

Currently, though, I'm moonlighting in the active supporters unit, helping our incredible teams of volunteers across the UK who give their time, energy and boundless enthusiasm (in ways that constantly amaze me) to Greenpeace and our campaigning.

Next up in the spring blog relay is Rachael from our Active Supporter Unit - catch up on entries from other Greenpeace staff.

About 11 years ago I was lucky enough to be at an Orang-utan sanctuary in northern Sumatra, Indonesia when a huge, pregnant, semi-wild orang-utan swung down from the trees and stole my boyfriend's camera. How to explain this to the insurance company? Fortunately on deciding she couldn't eat it, she threw it down from the treetops where it landed in a patch of leaves with nothing more serious than a missing lens cap!

What, I hear you ask, does this have to do with Greenpeace? Well, this was one of many occasions in my life when something in the natural world filled me with a sense of awe and wonder and an urgent desire to protect it. And when I read in 2003 that the orang-utan sanctuary and village of Bukit Lawang had been virtually wiped out by flash floods caused by illegal logging, I could no longer sit on the sofa and just let it happen. I had to do something. This is why I got involved with Greenpeace: to do everything I can to stop the desolation of our planet and the extinction of all the species we share it with.

Part of the Trident: we don't buy it tour blog

With thanks to Wave Maker for the image

The thing nobody tells you about being arrested is just how boring it is. Not just need-a-good-book boring; after the adrenaline rollercoaster of a 14-hour blockade, the protracted thumb-twiddling of detention is mind-achingly, eye-bleedingly, soul-crushingly boring.