Anna, one of our fabulous Greenspeakers, tries to get some business students to see Greenpeace in a new light:

During my years as a Greenpeace volunteer I have encountered a wide range of reactions from the general public. It goes from the genuinely supportive (“thank you for being there, keep up the good work”) to the rather less printable (“&%+* off and get a bath/haircut/job, you %~@#+y #*@%y”)!

I am a tough Geordie lass and don't take it personally. As it happens, I not only wash every day and have not been too much of a stranger to the hairdresser, but I also have a job, as a musician and teacher. I've taught in homes, schools and colleges for about 14 years, and although much of my work is on a one-to-one basis, I have experience of teaching group classes too. Therefore it wasn't too daunting to be asked to speak at a college, where the audience was definitely the lower end of our target age range, even though the audience was made up of business students.

I arrived early, which was lucky as it gave me time to traverse the security procedures, fill in a short essay on my identity and reason for living, to be worn around the neck, and wait for my contact to lead the way to the classroom. This short journey almost turned into an incident, when my bag took the opportunity to go topsy-turvy, turning my belongings a fetching matte light-honey-beige. Thankfully, my Greenspeaker notes were spared, and I was able to dash into the classroom only a tiny bit windswept, just in time to give the talk.

Admittedly, it felt a teensy bit odd to see the group taking notes on Greenpeace, as if it was a science class. Volunteering has been a massive part of my life for 6 or 7 years, and I am used to the Greenpeace crew's great passion for what we do. To this class, it was just part of a module, a learning outcome. I showed the kids our action montage: volunteers clinging onto the side of a ship under water cannon; climbing things, chaining themselves to machinery, silently bearing witness. I told them about all the other things we do, that are legal and therefore less camera-friendly, yet no less important: the lobbying, the research, the street campaigns. I told them about our ships and about the wonderful people I have met.

I hope that the business studies class saw new dimensions to Greenpeace that day. I try to give my talk from the perspective of a 'real person.' Campaigners are sometimes portrayed in the media as violent, gung-ho anarchists, who will give anything a go and may not be fully aware of what they're doing. I want to show that we are just people, albeit ones who care, that we only resort to direct action when all else fails, and that we do not lightly give up our precious time but do what we do because we see the bigger picture.