Pete, Lewis and Rachel welcomed back Helen who is fast becoming a GoodGym Derby regular and also Manlin on their first volunteering session with us!

It was great to see a new face on the team, Manlin is interested in the Tiny Forest site as part of their research work for their dissertation.

The team assembled at the Tiny Forest having travelled there by car, train or on foot and set about a plan for the evening. Thanks to Pete for clearing some litter from the recreation ground in front of the Tiny Forest site, Pete collected a bag of litter and left this at a bin at the end of the session.

The team made a visible impact, clearing nettles, thistles and ragwort and making the beginnings of paths inside the Tiny Forest. This was all whilst being distracted by a furry visitor who was very interested in what the group were doing. It transpired a local resident had been feeding the fox and now pretty tame, it had come to see if any food was available.

For most of the group, it was their first time at a Tiny Forest site so it was great to have Helen there who knows the site well as she and her work colleagues planted the trees when the site was first created.

Thanks again for everyone who helped out and good luck to Lewis who has two huge life events happening over the next few weeks.

Keep an eye out for the next Tiny Forest session with GoodGym Derby.

Meeting in Littleover ahead of events taking place for The Great Big Green Week, the group went on a litter picking session as a recce for a group run taking place next week.

Pete and Ashley led the way on a 2 mile litter pick through parkland and residential roads.

Although the group missed regular volunteer Mandy, it did give Ashley a higher chance of being litter picking champion of the night and he definitely won for 'best dressed according to the weather' with multiple layers suitable for a British summer.

Battling through the rain and chasing the sunshine breaking through clouds, the group collected a couple of bags worth of litter, mostly food, sweet and drinks packaging from around the park and outside of a school.

Well done for Pete for actively travelling to and from the session, Ashley for carrying out a recce ahead of leading a group run next week and Lewis for coming along despite being busy with wedding and moving plans and having some issues with his knee this week.

You can sign up to next week's group run where all abilities are welcome, whether you want to run or walk.

Ashley, Lewis and Rachel met with our friendly task owners down at the River Gardens steps to help scrub away at some of the moss that had collected along the steps.

Sunshine was scheduled and the group enjoyed a catchup by the river, with Ash and Lewis planning a run together on another night, hopefully avoiding rain again.

The task owners for this volunteering location are always really appreciative of what is achieved in a short space of time and said what a difference we had made to the steps. The group also had some really positive comments from passers by at what a good job was being done.

This task is a really good transformation task to see what can be done to improve an area in a short space of time when working together in a group. Keep an eye out for future dates when GoodGym Derby will return to River Gardens.