Ding Dong Merrily with Pie

GoodGym left me with a strange sense of deja vu last night. The same five GoodGymmers doing the same task and the same weather conditions as when we had cleared fly tipping from the Rawthorpe a few weeks previously.

So after removing a plethora of discarded domestic items from the woods, gardens and alleyways of the estate just a month ago, the junk was back. But fortunately so was GoodGym, with Sharon Donaghy from Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing once again calling upon us to blitz the fly tipping on this our final run before Christmas.

And what a jolly bunch we were, running through the rain up to Rawthorpe where Sharon had arranged to have the Community Centre open and the promise of a mince pie and a cup of tea once the job was done. This week’s crew were all GoodGym Huddersfield veterans, and with characteristic enthusiasm were once again all up for the task of tidying the tipping on the estate.

In her usual organised way Sharon had reconnoitred where the worst of the waste beforehand and produced handwritten sheets detailing all the locations. All the GoodGymmers had to do was use these to find the tipping, then carry, push or heave the offending items to the side of the road where it would be collected by Kirklees Neighbourhood Housing Caretakers the following day.

I didn’t think there would be much to do following our clean up last month, but how wrong I was! Our first hit comprised a massive stack of trash including the obligatory sofa and old bed, in addition to some more unusual items, a mixing desk, X-box and complete set of dumbbells. Someone had obviously decided home exercise wasn’t for them.....should have gone to GoodGym!

From there we split into two teams and ran round the estate, following Sharon’s “clues” to find our quarry. A TV stand here, bucket of rubble there, a bannister rail somewhere else, not exactly a traditional treasure hunt but quite good fun all the same, and vital to Sharon’s ongoing task to keep the estate looking tidy for all the residents. It would have been nicer to have been doing this in slightly more seasonal conditions, a cold crisp night with a sprinkle of snow would have been perfect, but as it were happy settle for warm and wet knowing our efforts were going to benefit the local community.

After an hour of merrily running around, Sharon’s List was complete and we headed back to the Community Centre, where volunteers Diane and Colin had the kettle on and mince pies ready. What a good night and what another good job done, although I suspect GoodGym will need to be back in Rawthorpe to repeat the exercise once again at some point in 2019!

Thanks to Sharon for once again being an excellent task master, and to the GoodGym crew of Louise Galvin, Kati Law, Chris Green and Heather Wilshaw-Jones, not just for this task, but for their support of GoodGym Huddersfield since our launch in September. Thanks folks, have a fantastic festive season and see you all next year!

Thanks to Louise Galvin for this week's run report headline.