About us

Jo Spangaro has lived in Gladesville since 1986 and has two children aged 19 and 25 years. She is a social worker by training and worked for the NSW Health Department for many years. She has just completed a Ph D in public health and works as a research officer at the University of New South Wales.

She was convinced of the urgency of action on climate change after reading Time Flannery’s book The Weather Makers and inspired to find others locally to work with on the issue after seeing Al Gore’s film. She was glad too, to have caught a bus to see the film, for a guilt free ride home and is now riding her bicycle more often.

Lorraine Findlay has lived in Gladesville since 1992 and has a 28-year-old daughter. She grew up with lots of chooks, fruit trees and veggie gardens and has always felt a very strong connection to the earth. She understands the importance of developing both respect of, and love for the earth, for the wellbeing of future generations, as well as for ourselves. Lorraine has being involved in teaching/education in a range of areas for most of her life and manages a not-for-profit community centre.

Lorraine became involved with the group because it’s made up of local residents who want to make a difference, and her experience in the community sector has confirmed her view that every voice can, and does make a difference and encourages everyone to have their voice heard.

Lynda Wightman developed a deep understanding for the environment having grown up on a farm and trained as a horticulturist. Since 1996 she has lived in the Gladesville area, currently works as a warehouse manager in a local Gladesville business, is a busy parent to an active teenager, and enjoys an occasional TV murder mystery to wind down.

She became involved in this group determined to take positive action about climate change at grass roots level, to take on new challenges with a group of friendly committed people, and to make a difference.

Pamela Reeves has lived in the Gladesville area since 1987. She has a husband and two teenage children. Frustrated by the lack of action by the Howard Government on climate change, she joined the Ryde Gladesville Climate Action Group.

As the song says, “from little things big things grow”, and Pamela believes that working within the community with a group of people who want to make a difference is the most positive thing she can do.  When not making costumes for opera or theatre, she sews quilts, helps out at her children’s school, and endeavours to manage her wild garden.

Lucia Scurrah is a textile designer with two small children under 6. She spent much of her childhood in Peru and was made aware of the surrounding social injustices and environmental disasters and concerns at a very young age by her vociferously opinionated and social minded parents.

She arrived in Australia as a teenager and is enjoying the immense privilege of living near a bushland park on the shore of one of the most beautiful cosmopolitan harbours in the world, but is saddened that decades of wanton abuse and misuse have rendered its waters too toxic for swimming.

She would love to be part of a generation which transforms its relationship to land, to consumption, to development. She would love to see her children and her children’s children grow into a safe, biodiverse and sustainable world.