6 Luton Goodgymers joined the FoLP and ABCD-IN-LUTON for this months community litterpick.
We started by welcoming our first timer Susannah who was glad to finally come out with us after signing up a little while ago. As the temperature was beginning to climb Kevin from ABCD-IN-LUTON reminded everyone to stay hydrated and he'd generously brought some bottles of water 💧 💧 💧 so everyone could take one on their way round the park. It was quite a leisurely walk around the park, past the site of the new Luton Henge project and along the river Lea. We gathered around 15 bags of rubbish 🗑 and the park looked a lot tidier after we'd all finished. David occupied his regular spot dangling like Spiderman over the river, fishing out all sorts of goodies only this time he had to fish out something a little more personal to himself as his phone dropped out of his pocket into the juice. He assured me it was ok 👍🏻 📱 . All in all it was a good task and we look forward to returning next month. Great job, well done 👏

Our group run this week had a unexpected twist as our 🏃‍♀️ 🏃‍♂️ and cyclists 🚴‍♂️ 🚴‍♀️ headed out to the task at Ferndale Allotment.
After meeting at our usual rendezvous point, and briefing the team on the evening task, we headed off, runners, cyclists and walkers. As the walkers got near to the task site, there was quite a commotion. The runners and cyclists had stopped as they had witnessed a car accident (thankfully no-one was hurt) and had called the police to attend. After checking the team were all ok, the walkers headed to the allotment to start the litterpick task while the others stayed to give statements to the police 🚔 🚔. Once all back together at the allotment, the team had a successful tidy up on the plots we were asked to tidy and the communal areas and then we all headed back to town. Interesting evening and the first time statements have provided by Goodgymers to the police on a Luton Group run. Great effort everyone.

We had a team of eight join up with the other friends of People's Park to carry out a thorough cleanup of the park.

Weeks of nice weather had attracted lots of daytime park users who left all the usual litter scattered around the fields bushes and trees of this large site. There was also a fair bit of evidence of a night time economy, as well as the fly tipping of a few random items, this time a push chair, a freezer drawer, a walking stick and a children's ride on car thing were the main features of an impressive haul of 16 bags of rubbish!

All seemed normal on this week's group run as we headed up the hill to the giant Welcome to Luton gravel sign on the hill by the motorway. 🛣️

But on arrival we found an unusual guest waiting for us. It was a member of the BBC Three Counties Radio team with the news that we have been nominated for the Three Counties People Awards! Our task was given a lovely boost as we were asked to record some audio about GoodGym, what we do and why we love it. In between planes roaring overhead we all got a chance to say a bit about ourselves and also wish BBC 3CR a happy 40th birthday, ready for the celebration in a few weeks.

All of that showbiz stuff aside we also managed to weed the gravel, sort the black and white pebbles back into their right places and get the sign looking great again and welcoming all the drivers and pilots on their approach to Luton!

Beautiful spring sunshine welcomed us as we gathered at the Green Flag to launch another round of the monthly People's Park litter pick.

Splitting up and roving around the park we collected all the litter dropped by recent park users enjoying the warm weather.

The trees in the orchard also got a thorough watering with those on that task getting lots of steps in by having to walk watering cans out from the nearby houses and across to field to the trees and return for refills.

When our time was up we returned to the flag with our collected bags to count them up: 14 bags in total, not bad for a morning in the sun 🌞

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