Sheila K and Karen attended the Baby Bank today on the regular Friday slot. They helped unload some donations from cars and sort donations of Christmas gift bags containing new pyjamas, a book and a selection box which will be given out to needy children next month. Sheila helped take the bags of unwanted clothes down to a van for recycling before joining Karen doing the second checks of donated clothing.

The two Sheilas made their way to the Baby Bank for another busy morning of clothes sorting. Despite the facility not accepting clothes donations at the moment, there is still a huge backlog to be sorted and tidied away. Towards the end of the session, Clean Conscience turned up with a pallet-full of clothing returns. Instead of taking returns back from customers, an organic clothing company gives them away to charity. A real eye-opener into the workings of online companies. Great for the Baby Bank, but the items are still in their packaging and we needed to find space to store it all until it can be sorted. The boxes and packages were transported upstairs and crammed into travel cots and sacks and put into all the spare spaces that we could find. And then half an hour later another pallet-load arrived. We were exhausted!

🦸‍♀️ Six litter-picking superheroes assembled at the community centre, ready to take on the challenge of tidying up the streets and parks of Maidenhead.

Armed with picks and hoops, we set off towards the station—a gentle stroll to warm up our eyes for the litter lurking ahead. From the station, we swooped into the High Street, scooping up mountains of cigarette butts and rogue takeaway cups.

Tony and Mike veered off down a side-street, while Sheila, Sarah, Jess, and Viv took the more direct route. Everyone found a few treasures, but the general consensus? The town centre was looking far tidier than on previous missions.

We were met with cheerful “Thank you!”s from passers-by, and even roped in a spontaneous participant for a race to a paper cup. He won—and his prize? The honour of binning it himself!

With the town centre sparkling, we ventured into Kidwells Park. Here, the litter was more plentiful, and our bags filled up fast. After an hour of heroic effort, we regrouped at the community centre to compare hauls and swap stories.

A job well done—and a wonderfully chatty, cheerful task to boot!

Only one Good Gymer today, Sheila K, but two Duke of Edinburgh volunteers kept her company on today’s mammoth task. Customers who returned newly purchased clothing items to an overseas retailer would be blissfully unaware that these items did not actually go back overseas. Instead they have been gathered together and despatched in bulk to the Baby Bank. Today’s task was to open up the mountain of parcels and sort the contents into piles of underwear, tops, bottoms and swimwear. Further sorting will be needed as the Baby Bank will not be issuing out any of the more skimpy underwear to their clients!