5 Luton Goodgymers got up nice and early to support the Wardown Parkrun this week. Doing various role, from Set up to marshalling and even enjoying a Saturday morning stroll as official Park walkers. The Marshall were really encouraging and that made it a really nice event this week. Great effort team 👏

The final days of January and our last effort at getting empty tubs to various Greene King Pubs for their recycling and charity scheme. I can’t believe that we were still able to track down some empty tubs, but the good people of Luton and Dunstable seem to still be polishing off their Christmas goodies, including Duncan’s family who have at last finished the tub of Jacobs Crackers.

Ella’s netball team provided her with a boot full of tubs, that’s a lot of jumping around they will need to do to burn off all that chocolate. Pam took a stroll up to the Hungry Horse and created a Tub2Pub Jenga with Duncan’s Cracker tub. Gill found herself passing the Red Lion in Stevenage on her walk to the physiotherapist, so she ran back to her car to fetch the tub and deliver it. Charmaine and Martin pared up to deliver a tub of Roses to the Biscot Mill while Neil and Sheets went to The Anchor with their Heroes Tubs.

Hopefully we have now cleared up all the empty tubs from our friends and family and have made a fabulous contribution to the Greene King Macmillan/Recycling Scheme.

Well done to everyone who participated this year.

6 of Luton's Goodgymers took part in the last of the BIG January tidy up weeks. An extra push to keep our communities clean and tidy as part of the Goodgym January challenge. Whether it's nipping out on your lunch break or litterpicking before a Goodgym group run, this month has seen our Goodgymers go above and beyond keeping Britain tidy. We'll done to everyone who's taken part. Great job team 👏

January is always a good time to have a clear out. As GoodGymers we often spend time doing tidying tasks for different groups and organisations in the community, but we decided to have a clear out some of our clutter from our own homes, and then walk, run or cycle to deliver it to our local Keech Hospice Shop or other charity shop.

It was a great opportunity to sort through unwanted Christmas presents, books we’ve read and a whole host of other paraphernalia, that although we might not need, we were sure would be useful to others. As they say, “One Goodgymer’s clutter is another person’s treasure." or something like that.

Laura started the ball rolling by sorting out and boxing up clothes and all sorts. Dani took a car boot full of treasures to the Keech Hospice Shop at Jansel House. Duncan managed to fill 6 black bin bags and also took them to Keech at Jansel House (including a signed Uncle Buck movie poster – yes you heard right – get yourself there to own an important part of movie history!!!) Martin took a number of assorted bags from his clear out to the Sue Ryder Shop in Leagrave. And Ella has been having a series of clear outs each week and has been restocking her local charity shop. Gill sorted out a massive box which was so heavy she had to enlist Omar to help with transporting it. She even managed to liberate an unused hoover from her dad’s and they delivered all to the Keech Shop at Britania Estates.

So upper body workouts all round, clean and tidy cupboards at home, plus lots of lovely things donated to help raise money for our local charities into the bargain.

Well done GoodGymers.

It’s the 4th week of January, and we have been checking with our neighbours and friends to check if they have finished up any more of their Christmas sweets.

Gill, Ella, Pam and Omar all managed to find an empty tub, and have delivered them to the various Greene King Pubs around Luton. The Jolly Topper got the price for the jolliest bar staff who was thrilled when Gill dropped off her tub. Pam took the opportunity to have a cheeky mocktail with her son after walking to the Jolly Milliners, Ella had begged a tub from her mum and dropped it off at The Swan, and Omar made a trip with Gill to Biscot Mill again to drop of his tub.

Week 4 of The BIG January tidy up and 4 of the Luton faithful are still happy to brave the elements to keep their communities looking immaculate. This week seeing a part of Hightown getting the once over, Wardown Park having a pre parkrun tidy up and the area around Holy Trinity Church ⛪️ being cleared of 6 bags worth of rubbish. Really good effort this week team. Well done 👏

The final Goodgym parkrun takeover of January 2025 saw 8 Goodgymers assist a whopping total of 333 parkrunners to have a fun, safe run jog or walk in the winter sunshine.

Cricketing superstition dictates that when the batting side reaches a Nelson score (111, 222 etc) everyone in the dressing room should lift their feet off the floor, lest a wicket should fall. We couldn’t know during the event that the total number of runners would be a Nelson, but now that we do, and we’re all safely back in the warm, it’s probably best to put our feet up to be on the safe side…