Students turn Big Tidy Up into a Street Party!
20 November 2009
More than 30 students in Leeds gave up their lie-in to clear the streets of litter on Saturday morning - thanks to our web editor, Nicola Peate and her sister.
The University of Leeds students decided to give the streets of popular student area Hyde Park and Headlingley a spring clean as part of our Big Tidy Up.
Event organiser Katie Peate, a student at Leeds University, said: “Headingley has always been known as a lovely area and a really nice student place to live so if its full of litter it’s a reflection on us.
"Students get a bad reputation for being litter louts and we don’t want that so are being proactive and making sure our area is kept as nice as it should be.”
The event showed exactly what a Big Tidy Up should be about with lots of fun accompanying the task of collecting litter.
The event was organised by Leeds Student Radio who broadcast live from the Big Tidy Up so with music filling the streets and green tabards everywhere to be seen the event attracted lots of attention including BBC Look North who came down to film the tidy up.
Prizes were given for the most unusual piece of litter found (a photograph of a topless male on a beach!) and the item with the highest value which was a £10 note!
It may have been the lure of free pizza from Dominos that dragged the students out of their beds on the drizzly Saturday as the company offered to support the event by providing free food for all volunteers.
The Keep Britain Tidy twitter page was updated throughout the day and messages of support flooded in from across the country – including Dominos in Lincoln and Newark who promised to provide free pizza for Big Tidy Up volunteers in their areas!
This goes to show just how successful a Big Tidy Up can be and what can be achieved when an event such as this is organised.
So why not get your family and friends involved in a Big Tidy Up?