Monday 21st August 2023
Report written by Manjit Birk
Such a glorious evening today with the sun beaming down on us as we carried out an environmental task at St Mary's Church on Church St.
We had a mixed bag of those who wanted to meet at the task location and those who met me at Upton Court park for a little warm up and jog/walk down to the Church.
Great to have Sandy back after a little break and of course the usual team. As the walkers set off, the runners did a warm up and jogged down after them.
The task tonight was to litter pick the grounds. As the Church has a footpath going through it, it does get used by residents as a cut through which unfortunately results in excess litter.
The last time we did this task here was on the King's Coronation bank holiday as part of the big help out. We, alongside local residents and businesses collected over 30 bags of rubbish that day!
On arrival we were met by Reverend Scott, who gave us an overview of the areas he wanted us to focus on - which was basically all of it. It was nave of us to think we wouldn't find any litter as sadly the whole grounds were full of it.
We knew we had to be a litter bit careful of the needles on the Church grounds and low and behind, Sara and Mehdi found a bunch of them tucked away in a corner. We used the safe methods of disposal into the sharps bin the Church had - we took no chancels on this litter!
The best way to tackle this task was to split off into pairs or trio's and take a section of the grounds each. Our paths crossed as we worked our way around picking up cans, crisp packets, clothing, handbags and even a £5 note! Good find Maya
Within 40 minutes we had altared the way the grounds looked and holy smoke we had collected 12 bagful's of rubbish.
As always, the Church are always very hospitable and had cold drinks and fruit for us at the end of the task, whilst the team enjoyed that, Sara and I had a lovely chat with Reverand Scott -about the Church, it's history and burials! - he's a font of all knowledge
Next week it's bank holiday Monday but we will still be out doing our good deeds. We will be at Salt hill park at 6.30pm for a litter picking task.
But before we go here is a picture to show how bendy we are (or not!)...well done Hamid! Clearly the winner!
PS.. thank you Jen for all the puns