Ashley and Pete met new member Pianofire for their first mission at GoodGym. We set about litter picking in the park ahead of the Darley Park Concert. This year, it's not free and they erected large walls to block the view. Top find of the evening was a lawnmower shredded bra which took a while to pick up all the pieces. We ended up with 3 good bags of rubbish which is quite unusual for this park. A beautiful evening for a walk in nature and a chat.

Ashley, Pete and Rachel met with task owner Ali from Friends of Littleover Parks to discuss what the group would be doing to help with park maintenance.

Litter was collected from the children's play area and then the group set about removing weeds from where the safe rubber flooring met concrete. It was great to see the park being used by so many - children in the play area, dogs being walked and sport being played.

Although sad to see the Olympics 2024 come to a close, the group were all looking forward to the Paralympics and reflected on how well Team GB had done and what a fantastic games it had been for the host nation.

Thanks to everyone who helped out this evening, well done Pete for actively travelling to the session and a huge thankd to Ashley for providing something for the group to graze on post session.

Photo of Ashley and Pete choo-choo-choosing to take a seat and a well deserved rest.

Ashley, Pete and Rachel met with David and some members of the parish from St Matthew's Church for a litter picking session around Darley Abbey.

Pick of the night went to Pete early on, as he found what was potentially a character toy from Peppa Pig. This was found in the church grounds and placed in an obvious location in case the owner and their parents returned.

The team went on a new route that they hadn't tried before, thanks to David from the church for this. Lots of food packaging, drinks containers and cigarette butts were collected.

Grateful for the temperature dropping from what it had been during the day, the team chatted about the upcoming England Vs Slovenia Euros match and upcoming GoodGym sessions that people were booked on and looking forward to.

Thanks as always to everyone who came along and made a difference to our community.

As part of The Great Big Green Week celebrations and calendar of events for Littleover, GoodGym Derby held a litter picking session in Sunnydale Park.

Ali, organiser of The Great Big Green Week in Littleover, met the group at the start of the session on their whirlwind tour of events taking place on Saturday to kick off the awareness week.

Chris and Deborah were brand new to GoodGym and it was a real bonus that the rain stopped and the sun was shining on the group for the session. Lots of food packaging, tissues, plastic bottles and vapes were collected using litter picking hoops and grabbers provided by Derby City Council's Parks Team. It was a great, slow paced session meandering through the park and woodland space which allowed the group to get to know a bit more about one another.

Thank you to volunteers who made it this morning, Sunnydale Park is now a bit more free from litter and enjoyable for visitors.

Our next session as part of The Great Big Green Week is on Tuesday 11th June. You can find out more and sign up here.

Meeting in Littleover ahead of events taking place for The Great Big Green Week, the group went on a litter picking session as a recce for a group run taking place next week.

Pete and Ashley led the way on a 2 mile litter pick through parkland and residential roads.

Although the group missed regular volunteer Mandy, it did give Ashley a higher chance of being litter picking champion of the night and he definitely won for 'best dressed according to the weather' with multiple layers suitable for a British summer.

Battling through the rain and chasing the sunshine breaking through clouds, the group collected a couple of bags worth of litter, mostly food, sweet and drinks packaging from around the park and outside of a school.

Well done for Pete for actively travelling to and from the session, Ashley for carrying out a recce ahead of leading a group run next week and Lewis for coming along despite being busy with wedding and moving plans and having some issues with his knee this week.

You can sign up to next week's group run where all abilities are welcome, whether you want to run or walk.

The group welcomed Ewan for their first volunteering session with GoodGym Derby along with David from St Matthew's Church and Iris and Ian from the local community. It was great to have such a large number litter picking and helping to keep Darley Park looking its best for visitors.

Ashley found time out from his head to head competition with Mandy to see who could collect the most litter to take some fantastic photos and Pete was pleased to find common ground with a fellow Mancunian in the group, until the revelation that they were in fact a Liverpool FC fan.

The rain that had been forecast held off for the group and it was great to see so many people enjoying the park, from cricket being played to rowers on the river, dog walkers, runners and pub goers enjoying a warm evening riverside. Sadly, nobody could watch a film on the dvd player that had been collected during the session as it was so damaged from river water and there was no accompanying screen to use with it, still a contender for 'pick of the night'.

Rubbish that had been collected was left by some bins and it had been agreed prior to the session that the City Council would collect these the following day. Thanks to David for organising this.

Thank you to everyone who came, hopefully some of the volunteers can make the social event ahead of Volunteers Week.

Grant also joined the group and will be added to the register by the central team so he can have a deed logged.