Giraffe Conservation Foundation Official Press Launch
On Monday 15th February 2010, GCF had its official launch event at the Union Chapel in Islington, London. Celebrating a successful year of operation, the launch was attended by supporters, conservation professionals, wildlife campaigners, friends and family of the GCF team.
On Monday 15th February 2010, GCF had its official launch event at the Union Chapel in Islington, London. Celebrating a successful year of operation, the launch was attended by supporters, conservation professionals, wildlife campaigners, friends and family of the GCF team.
Greg Edwards, co-Founder and Chairman of the charity gave an opening address explaining how his passion for giraffe had originated way back in his childhood. Greg was the one who powered through the seemingly endless admin and paperwork in the early stages allowing our application to be accepted by the Charity Commission and enabled us to gain our official registration as a UK charity. "Getting the Charity off the ground was a dream come true for all of us," Greg pointed out , "and given that we all have day jobs and do this work as volunteers, we are really excited and proud at just how far we have come in one year."
The GCF Board, Greg Edwards, Rebecca Muddeman, Mary Rice, Dr Julian Fennessy, Farahnaz Dowlet and Andy Tutchings (in spirit!)
Dr Julian Fennessy (affectionately known by the team as Mr Giraffe and arguably the world's top giraffe expert), then took the floor to give a fascinating and visually stunning presentation of GCF's work in the field. This included the very latest leading edge GPS Satellite Collaring Project in Niger, genetic sampling in Botswana last summer and an overview of all GCF supported projects across Kenya which is home to no less than three different giraffe sub-species. Although Andy Tutchings our co-founder and Trustee couldn't be with us in person, we did see plenty of him in full technicolour in action with the giraffe capture team in Niger (take a look at the Niger Project Blog for yourself!).
Our esteemed professional, Dr Julian Fennessy delivering his fascinating talk.
Dr Fennessy took plenty of questions from the audience and took the opportunity of introducing English researcher Zoe Muller who is about to take up a post in Kenya studying the endangered Rothschild giraffe. (With less than 700 of this sub-species left, this is mission critical work.) Dr Fennessy has pioneered the way forward by forming the first national strategy for giraffe research and conservation ever to be put in place in Kenya. This is a vital first step towards everyone working together to achieve the very best results for giraffe, now and into the future.
Our evening progressed with a stunning buffet supper supplied by Sue McCann and her team from the Margins charity (supporting homeless people) running at the Union Chapel and much conversation flowed with particular attention to our friends in high places, those graceful and very beautiful creatures, the giraffe!
Mary Rice with Rebecca Muddeman
(Rebecca receiving a gift from the rest of the team for all her hard work organising the event and the press campaign)
To coincide with our event we were very excited that the Guardian newspaper ran the Niger Satellite Collaring Story on-line and then in the newspaper itself the next day with additional coverage later in the week in the Guardian Weekly. A big thank you to Adam Vaughan for that!
We will keep you posted of all future events through the year as it is always a delight to be amongst people who share the same passion for conservation all with the desire to make a difference.
Zoe Muller, Gabriella, Greg Edwards, Rebecca Muddeman, Mary Rice, Paul Pope and Juilan Fennessy Chilling out after the event
A big thank you to everyone who came along and supported us at our first public event.
The GCF Team.