Fareham Shopping Centre unveiled a new poster to encourage shoppers to be ‘more green’. The poster was designed by 9-year-old Maisie English from Fareham who won the Centre’s Big Green Poster Competition last month.
Maisie, who is from Harrison Primary School, visited a graphics studio as part of her prize to see her design professionally produced before it was printed and displayed in the Centre outside Burger King on Thursday. The 6ft tall poster features a large tree, with a ‘green’ message in each of its branches. The slogan at the centre of the tree exclaims quite simply: “It’s good to be green.”
The competition challenged children from clubs and schools from across Fareham to design a poster which would encourage people to make a simple change in the way they do things, changes that could have a big impact on helping the environment. Harrison Primary School and Uplands Primary school submitted over 400 entries between them.
Centre Manager Pam Gillard was astonished by the overwhelming response to the competition. She comments: “We had to whittle down hundreds of excellent designs to find a winner. I’m delighted 
that so many children enjoyed our design challenge and that they put so much thought and imagination into their work. It is very rewarding to see that our ‘green’ message is being successfully passed on to our future generations. Well done Maisie and thank you for designing our excellent poster.”
The competition heralded the launch of the Centre’s new Green Zone, which shoppers can now visit outside Café Giardino. The zone displays green hints and tips and shows how the Centre works hard to be ‘green’. It’s all part of the Centre’s eco-friendly campaign to show people how ‘small steps can lead to big changes’. Shoppers can also pick up a stamp collection bag and take part in the ‘stamping out waste’ initiative, whereby shoppers can collect used postage stamps to help raise money for local Charity the Stubbington Ark.