The one where we needed an air freshener

 For April we headed to Culvers Avenue in Sutton.

We kicked off the day in the usual style, with a Welcome Talk and Health & Safety briefing. At this event, I was joined by our new member of staff, Jess Mead, who will be helping me run community events on the Wandle, Hogsmill and Beverley Brook!

We headed up to Watercress Park to get in the river and started wading down one side of Culvers Avenue. We were lucky enough to have a new, adorable helper this month (see right image, and no that isn’t Jess!).

The pile quickly grew, with my favourite find of the day: a pool noodle.

As we worked through the morning, the weather took a turn for the worse and we were suddenly aware we were getting quite wet from the rain. But that didn’t dampen spirits as we found some new transportation…

And I was even given some flowers….

By lunchtime, we were wet and ready for a cup of tea. A big thanks to Wally for getting the hot drinks and cake ready – they were appreciated. In the afternoon, we headed down the other side of Culvers Avenue, finding the classic coconut…

A handy floatation device…

And some perfume – which came in very handy as we found some pongy items in the river and wanted our rubbish pile to smell less vile.

But with the rain pouring and the site clear, we called it a day.

So what did we find?  1 parasol, 1 pool noodle, 1 crutch, 1 scooter, 1 baby bike, 1 football, 1 safe, 1 mattress, 1 microwave, 1 champagne bottle (empty we promise..), 1 kettle, 1 basket ball hoop, 1 camping chair, 2 pogo sticks, 2 bikes, 2 tricycles, 4 coconuts,  lots of railings, pots and pans, and bags and bags of bottles and other junk.

Huge thanks everyone who helped unpack and pack up the van during the event, Wally for supervising the Event Tent, and the Parks Team at Sutton Council for organising collection of all the rubbish the next day, Big Yellow Wandsworth for providing free storage space for our equipment and to our funders, Tesco!

Thank you to all our volunteers for coming:   Andy, Chris, Dave, Derek , Frank, Gearoid, Geoff, Gideon, Guy, Jackie, Jane, John, Madeline, Marcus, Martin, Maude, Mickey, Nikolett, Paul, Phil, Roger, Sheila, Simon, Sofia, Teodora, Thea, Tom, Victoria, Wally, Wayne and William.

So what did I learn from this month’s cleanup? If something smells really bad, it is handy to find perfume in the river to keep your rubbish heap smelling fresh.