A trio of Luton Goodgymers teamed up with the London Road Litter Pickers for the South Luton monthly litter pick. It was another baking hot morning but we were undeterred. As well as picking up the usual array of cans, bottles, food containers etc. we also targeted Memorial Park where it was clear there had been a bit of a “do” the night before with canisters of nitrous oxide (laughing gas), balloons and other small packets. It’s such a shame these were left by the children’s play area, but we soon got it tidied up. Lots of The local residents commented on what a great difference we made. Well done Yazed, Yasin and Gill, our help was much appreciated.

Ms A was very apologetic when I arrived to mow her lawn, thinking she was referring to the small patch of grass by her front door. "Come through and take a look at the back," she said "before you decide whether you want to leave it and go home." So we went through the gate to the back garden and I realised that the job was going to bigger than I thought. The grass was very overgrown and there were a lot of brambles, nettles and other weeds shooting up all over the place. But never let it be said that this GoodGymer will be phased by a bit of hard graft. Ms A was convinced I would turn tail and go, but I said I had promised to do an hour and a half and I would get done as much as I could. The sun was beating down and there was very little shade as I set to with the strimmer to get the grass down to a manageable length. Pulling out the worst of the weeds, I decided to attack the brambles with my shears that I had fortunately got in the boot of my car as the shears in the shed were decidedly blunt and rusty. It was hot sunny afternoon so I did feel like I was doing a workout in a sweat box - but as I kept slang to Ms A, this is exactly what GoodGym is here for - to do good and get fit. I set myself the target of trimming and then mowing at least half of the sizeable grade, and having filled all the garden waste bags Ms A had I was pleased to have just achieved my target in the time all though it had been pretty exhausting in the heat. Ms A was absolutely thrilled and said she will look forward to coming out into the garden now.

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.