This week's group run took us to the Dallow Downs to meet a new partner organision for GoodGym, the recently formed Friends of Dallow Downs and Winsdon Hill!

It was unseasonably warm on the way up the Dallow Road but before too long we found Kevin from ABCD Luton who supports litter picking groups all over town. We set ourselves up with bags and pickers and headed between the houses into the woods at the bottom of the hill to meet Sophie, Vanessa and John, the friends group.

We didn't have to take more than a couple of steps into the woods before we found plenty of mess. Domestic waste had been dumped here many times by the look of it and the area hadn't been cleaned for years and years.

We filled bag after bag of all the rubbish, there was layer upon layer. It's the first time we've made good use of a rake on a litter pick! Perseverance meant we made some progress and forged on deeper into the woods.

After an hour we called it a day and counted up our collection of bags to a huge 129! Not to mention all the other random large items we pulled out like beds, tables, TVs and a gazebo!

It was a pleasure to meet this new group and help them out with their passion to restore the downs to something resembling a natural state! We will be back!

On this warm and sunny Sunday morning a team of three from GoodGym joined a couple of local residents and Kevin from ABCD to tackle an overgrown alleyway connecting Montrose Avenue to Carlton Crescent.

The alleyway was closing up with the ivy on the fences closing in and the weeds in the sides growing unchecked. But with an hour's effort from the collective of volunteers, spurred on by the thanks of passing residents, we soon got it all cleared clean with a transformed view through to the other end.

Building connection meeting new people growing stronger Inside and out improving fitness while making real difference

It’s a busy Easter weekend, but one Goodgymer was able to slot a litter pick in between the Easter preparations. I joined the London Road Litter Pickers to tidy up this stretch of the main road into Luton. There was plenty of rubbish to keep us busy, especially when I came across 7 bags of nappies, food and other rubbish that had been split open and were spilled over the street. Not the most pleasant of tasks, but it certainly made a difference to the local area.

This morning I joined Kev from ABCD-IN-LUTON, students and teachers from Chantry Primary Academy and a spiderman on the latest leg of the Great British Spring Clean. It was great to see so many of the children out with their teachers, giving up their Sunday morning to help be a part of such a good cause. All the children were excited to see Spiderman who came to help with litterpick. I brought my Dad a long to help and he was just as excited to see Spiderman as the children were. Everyone did great today and in my opinion although we had a comic book legend with us, the children and their teachers are just as worthy of the title Superheroes 😀.

Well done to everyone who took part. 👏

2 Goodgymers from the Luton massive supported Bramingham residents on a community litterpick as part of the Great British Spring Clean led by abcd-in-luton.
The turn out for the event was amazing with roughly 30 individuals ready to fill bags as part of this national initiative. The litterpick only lasted an hour but the group still managed to collect a vast haul of rubbish from the local area. Litterpicks often throw up little surprises but occasionally you finds something that puts a smile on your face on a personal level. Today whilst pulling bottles and cans from a hedgerow, I found a toy police car which reminded me of many years ago when I would play with cars for hours as a young boy. It genuinely gave me a warm feeling inside. Unfortunately it only had 2 wheels so couldn't really be passed on to anyone else to have fun with. It was a really great event and really felt like the group was a community that cared. Great effort today Goodgym, our support was greatly appreciated. 👍🏻