Mansfield Rotary Club gave a big thank you to its Just Bin It! litter-picking volunteers at a special online get-together.

President Rotn Kate Allsop said: “Mansfield Rotary thanks you, Mansfield’s residents thank you.

“What you are doing is exemplary and I am so proud of all those people who have got behind out campaign to pick up litter.

“A huge thank you for the difference you are making.”

Rotn Stewart Rickersey explained how the Just Bin It! campaign came to life in August last year when the club’s Community and Vocation team agreed to spend £300 on buying 100 litter-picking tools.

Volunteers have registered on the Rotary club’s website and been clearing rubbish regularly in their communities ever since.

Stewart said the volunteers have grown from around 50 to a “staggering” 377.

Photographs of the volunteers’ work have been used both on social media and in print, like in the Mansfield and Ashfield News Journal.

“It has been nice to see lots of parents and grandparents taking part in the programme with youngsters and that is where our hopes lie for the future, that they will grow up and not be the sort of people who throw cans and fast food materials out of cars as they drive around,” said Stewart.

He also told the volunteers how the Rotary Club, through its Community and Vocation team, has also helped other areas of the community over the past 15 months — supporting the Beacon project, St John’s Ambulance, MIND, Portland College, the Old Meeting House, a programme to provide unused computer equipment to schools as well as distributing money through Rotary Foodbanks to the vulnerable through the coronavirus pandemic.

Kate said one of the best things about being a Rotarian was the opportunity to make a difference in the community, particularly getting a chance to work with young people.

Past president Denise Starkey outlined the work of the now annual Rotary Swimathon, which will be raising money for a third time in October, while the work of the club’s annual Courage Awards, Young Chef competition, Junior Showtime and Santa Sleigh were highlighted.