A litter bit more than 150!

#Magpies150Challenge

This year Maidenhead Magpies Football Club are celebrating their 150th year. As part of their celebrations, and at a time when many local charities have been terribly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic, they have launched the Magpies 150 Challenge, through which they are aiming to raise at least £150,000 to support 15 Maidenhead and Windsor based charities. You can find out more about the chosen charities by visiting their website here.

GoodGym Windsor and Maidenhead are supporting this brilliant initiative by taking on a different challenge every month, each one based around the numbers 150, 15 or 1.5. In September we collectively ran over 150 miles, and this month we challenged everyone to go out on a run or walk and clear up 150 pieces of litter.

A Magpies' challenge in more ways than one

Magpies of the ornithological variety are known for their avid collection of shiny objects, so this was a Magpies' challenge in more ways than one. Like the distinctive black and white birds, we trained our eyes on the shiny cans, bottles, sweet wrappers and nitrous oxide canisters littering our neighbourhoods (and lots of less shiny rubbish too) and took it back to our nests safely by using litter pickers, gloves and bags.

This was a community mission which people completed in their own time during the month. It was great to see photos and cheers coming through on the WhatsApp group and Strava feeds as people completed the challenge over the weeks.

One for sorrow

Some people find litter picking satisfying and oddly addictive, but it is also sad to see how much rubbish is discarded irresponsibly. Many of us only had to walk 1km or so before we had found 150 pieces.

3000 for joy!

But let's focus on the positive story here:

With 19 of us taking the challenge, and with lots of people going over the target 150, we have collected over 3000 pieces of litter - an awesome achievement!! A huge well done to everyone who took part.

Three for a girl, four for a boy

It was also great to see how many people got their children involved. Many members made this a family outing and the children loved spotting, gathering and counting the booty, and learning a thing or two about being a good citizen along the way. GoodGym is just for over 18s so we take no responsibility for these youngsters, but we hope to have them signing up and wearing their own red t-shirts in decades to come.

Five for silver, six for gold, seven for a secret...

Don't forget the Magpies Challenge is all about fundraising for those in need in our local community, so please support our Just Giving page by clicking here if you can. Even a £1.50 donation would make a difference. And if you think 3000 pieces of litter is a great achievement then don't keep it a secret. Please share this run report and our Just Giving page with friends and family and encourage them to support us.

Eight for a wish, nine for a kiss

We are planning a different Magpies 150 challenge every month, and November is all about supporting those in need - not with wishes or kisses but by donating 150 items to our local foodbanks and Christmas appeals such as the Baby Bank's Pyjama appeal. Lockdown won't stop us completing this challenge - if anything it will make it even more vital, so please follow this link for all the details and to sign up.

Ten for a challenge you must not miss

We can't wait for December's challenge either...we want to see if we can collectively go on 150 'Santa Dashes' (or just runs in Christmas fancy dress) to raise a few ho ho hos and spread some Christmas magic. Get involved here and tell your friends too - you'll be a far more convincing Santa if you have Rudolf with you (or at least you won't be the only one looking silly)!

A special mention goes to Claire, Celine and Emily, who joined us for the first time. We hope you had fun, and if nothing else you now know the words to the traditional Magpie 'One for Sorrow' rhyme...sort of! As Lockdown will impact our activities over the next month, a great way to be part of the GoodGym community and be inspired and motivated by each other is to join our Facebook group. We hope we will also have the opportunity to see you on a community mission in person before too long.