North Northamptonshire litter pick group looking for more volunteers to educate next generation of 'Wombles'
A North Northamptonshire litter picking group based in Wellingborough is looking to expand its educational service to provide free lessons to school children across the area.
To make children aware of the environmental impact of littering, last year, community keep-tidy group Wellie Wombles launched free in-school presentations run by retired teachers.
The CLEAN team idea – (Clear, Litter, Educate, Advise, Northants), started by Kevin Potter from Northants Litter Wombles, was adopted by the Wellingborough group.
Freddie Harris founder of Wellie Wombles said: "He started it and we thought ‘what a good idea’ so I went along to a couple to see how it worked and I thought ‘we’ve got to do this’.
“Since adopting the scheme our two presenters – both retired from the world of education – Kate French and Kelley Reid, have presented to close to 2,700 youngsters in the Wellingborough area.
“But what we would really like to do is to expand these presentations across the North Northants towns so that instead of presenting to 2,700 it could be 27,000 youngsters!
“To do that we urgently need retired teachers, or presenters from the world of commerce, to take on the challenge in the schools and youth groups where they live.”
Wellie Wombles started in lockdown has collected over 3,000 bags of detritus as well as reporting flytipping and recovering scores of abandoned shopping trolleys.
Freddie said: “We are proud of our achievement, as I am sure as are the Kettering, Corby Thrapston and Oundle Womble groups.
“But like many Wombles collecting litter dropped by careless citizens is both soul destroying and endless in our fast food and fast lifestyle world.
“We began to come to the conclusion that we have lost the current mostly young people to try and persuade them to take their litter home. Or at least put it in a litter bin.”
Presenters go into the schools tell children about the effects on the environment and the threat to wildlife.
Freddie added: “With sufficient interest we will be organising several seminars explaining what and how you too can be a CLEAN presenter, what equipment might be needed, how to apply for grants and contact your local primary schools, cubs, scouts and guides to offer this free presentation to their Environmental groups.”
For further information email [email protected].