Portsmouth

Community mission

A Wild Connection With Nature!

6 GoodGymers made their way to help the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust in Portsmouth.

  • Samantha Belfrage
  • Portsmouth runner
  • Charlotte Fisher
  • Judy Knapp
  • Jen Stoneham
  • Wilson
 
Sunday, 8th of September 2019
 
Led by Portsmouth runner

Today 6 of us joined the Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust at their event held at the Waterside Garden Centre in Avenue de Caen. For an Autumn day it was beautiful, lots of blue sky and sun which certainly brought lots of people along. Arriving at 11.00 I hung the GG flag ready to promote GoodGym and was quickly joined by Judy and Charlotte who was ready for a litter-pick. Off she went to to the Castle Field area and found the usual cigaratte butts along with an abandoned picnic blanket and some lumps of concrete. No item of clothing though! In the meantime, Jen arriving bringing her partner and daughter who had a wander around to take a look at the various kiddy stuff to do - show and tell with plants, leaves, items to identify and talk about. There was an opportunity to paint stones and learn about the plants that attract bees. You could learn about foxes and their environment, how to make your garden attractive to bees by the plants you have and how to build a home to attract hedgehogs. A huge amount of stuff in small space! Once they'd seen everything they took the litter pickers and had a wander around the area directly adjacent to the garden centre and managed to find some pants in a bush!, a golf ball, and rather unfortunately for someone, a Honda car key, which was handed in to the garden centre and then advised to local traffic wardens in case they found a car that hadn't moved. Maybe the DVLC could trace the owners and return their key via the number plate. I do hope though that they had a spare with them so that they could get home! With Jen and Charlotte popping off home, we then had Sam, John and girls arrive to do the rounds and then a third litter pick going back in the direction of the skate park. They managed to find some raffle tickets, sequins, and craft paper/tissue which was a bit random and puzzling as to what had been going on! In all a total of 2.5 bags which was brilliant. Sarah joined us for the last hour and did a sterling job with talking about GG, and was a big help in breaking down the stands, the signs and moving things around. After a quick cuppa for Sarah and an ice lolly for me, we went our separate ways. Andy from the wildlife trust had been counting the visitors through the door and at 4pm when we packed up, we'd seen 294 people through the gates (over 300 if we'd included the dogs!) and I have to say some genuine interest in GoodGym, what we do, how we work, so hoping for some new recruits and potential new missions coming our way. A good job jobbed!

Report written by Portsmouth runner


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Mel Saxbee
Led by Mel Saxbee

I love combining exercise with doing good with Goodgym. Add to that, we are able to do it by the seaside and that's close to being perfect!

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