5 GoodGymers joined members the local community to pick 18 bags of rubbish from Wigmore church field and car parks.

The wind threatening to blow the bags away didn’t stop us filling them to the brim with the usual litter but also a football, a football boot and a 90’s throwback can of Virgin Cola.

The worst of the litter was under thick hedges and the GoodGym team weren’t scared to jump into the bushes to get out the worst of the rubbish.

Assisting a visually impaired runner from the Luton VI Running Group with a training session at Stockwood Park athletics track

This week our group run was part of the Great British Spring Clean for Keep Britain Tidy.

We only had a short distance to run so after our warm up we first headed across to Manor Park for a lap and then some relay dashes across the park to get our distance up.

Well warmed up with all that on what was a chilly windy evening, we moved on to meet with Kevin from ABCD Luton, who is leading a clean sweep across Luton, working with loads of local community groups to make a complete chain of litter picks from North to South.

Our stretch seemed fairly simple and clear but once we started probing the bushes with our pickers we soon found loads of litter. We ended up with one trolley 🛒 and 11 bags of rubbish, including a small bucket of pickled herrings, a shoe, a boot and a Christmas bauble among all the usual foot and drink wrappers.

finally back to Manor Park where the basketball court hosted our super quick six minute abs session before we had a cool down walk back to our start point.

This week we took on a couple of riverside tasks, first clearing up a ton of litter revealed during some scrub clearance work at a quiet riverside spot. While there we also spread out woodchip on the paths to make a nice mud-free riverside path. then we jogged on to another spot further down where a natural den by the river was attracting anti social behaviour, we took out some saplings and shrubs to open up this area and make it less secluded for dodgy activities. With the playground nearby this makes it a nicer place for kids to play and they can get in more easily to explore the river now.

We were joined in all this by Sam from the council who looks after all the volunteers in Luton's green spaces. He's been a fan of GoodGym for ages and regularly sets tasks for us but finally managed to join us for his first run as joint member and task owner!

This evening at FoodCycle saw a record breaking turn out of guests, a total of 35 people were fed and watered by the brilliant volunteer chefs and hosts. Things were crazy as we even had to seat people at what is usually the tea and coffee table, so it was all hands on deck to keep the evening running smoothly!

On the menu we had a delicious starter of Carrot Soup. A main meal of Steamed Mixed Vegetables with potato wedges & fried turnips and for dessert, beautiful fruit salad with banana cake and plenty of custard.

Another great community mission. ✅

Four of the GoodGym team met up with four from the new Grasmere Community Garden to set about relocating an old tractor tyre from the Venue 360 sports centre, 4 miles across town to the nursery garden.

The tyre had been in use for boot camp fitness sessions in years gone by but was now lying forgotten in a ditch. Getting it to the nursery gives it a new third lease of life.

Rolling a big tyre through town attracts a lot of heckles, with comments such as "Got a puncture?" and "Have you forgotten the rest of the tractor?" as well a few genuinely supportive folk and tooting car horns along the way.

We were received at the garden with a welcoming cheer from the friends of the garden and nursery school who turned up to see the feat, and a much needed banana! 🍌