Don’t mess with Manchester

On Saturday 22 June, a group of 17 foster parents, children and staff from FCA North West’s Manchester team headed off to Clarence Park in Bury to take part in BBC Radio Manchester’s ‘Don’t Mess With Manchester’ clean up initiative, to promote a cleaner Greater Manchester.

Before the event, we linked up with Jane, the co-ordinator of local group Keep Bury Tidy, who provided us with equipment (litter grabbers, hoops, bags and gloves) and safety advice.  We were also joined by BBC Manchester’s roaming reporter Cathy and were involved in two live broadcast slots from the litter collection, with a repeat of one broadcast on the 11.00 news.

Cathy and the studio-based DJ Phil Trow spoke with Caroline, our Fostering Service Manager and a few foster parents and young people about FCA, the work we do and also, FCA North West’s Eco Project, which gives children and young people the opportunity to be involved in and learn more about environmental issues. Liz also spoke about her plans to take on a much larger litter pick next weekend as she is off litter picking at Glastonbury with some of our other foster parents and will be championing FCA all the way.

After a week of good old Manchester rain, we were fortunately graced with glorious sunshine on the day and we managed to collect 15 large bags of litter before heading off for some well-earned lunch.

Over lunch all the young people spoke about what a brilliant time they’d had. They were so enthusiastic about the importance of what they were doing and what they could do next (more litter picks, targeting FCAs suppliers and being involved in a local canal clean).