I met some real-life Wombles!

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When my wife and I visited London last month, we gave ourselves an important task: find the local community hangout spot. (Okay, maybe I was the one who put that on our list.)

Fortunately, we were staying at a friend-of-a-friend's houseboat (!), so our host already knew the answer: The Yurt Cafe, of course.

Wombles hang out at the Yurt Cafe

The Yurt Cafe is located in a little campus called St. Katharine's Precinct—it includes some park land and artist studios in shipping containers. The building itself housed the promised cafe housed in a big round yurt structure, but attached to that were community meeting spaces.

We're not looking for the local hangout just so we can score a good cup of joe—though that is certainly an important prerequisite—but because of the people there, and the things we might discover by being in their orbit.

True to form: shortly after we stepped into the cafe, we saw a flyer on the wall for a craft meetup that coming Saturday. My wife is getting into embroidery, so we added it to our schedule.

Another vote for physical signage to get the word out about your programs—this isn't something we would have found online.

I went for a run that morning. While running, Christina sent me this photo from her seat at the gathering:

It was a volunteer trash pickup group convening outside. She knew I enjoyed volunteering for similar activities stateside, so she immediately thought to let me know.

I'm glad she did—because I finished my run at the Yurt Cafe, and met some real-life Wombles.

Cool story Tony, but what are Wombles?

Oh, sorry, I didn't realize you're not familiar with 1970s-era British children's media!

The Wombles started off as a series of books in the late sixties, eventually leading to a few runs of stop-motion animation television shows.

They're little mystical creatures who love to tidy up and make creative use of the trash that humans leave behind.

Those little critters are shy of humans, though, so I met the people who organized the trash pickups (okay, litter pickups) in their name. The WaSH Wombles—short for Wapping / Shadwell, two nearby neighborhoods.

They're the most wonderful, friendly, warm people you'll ever meet.

We talked at length. It was so energizing.

The actual tidying part

Enough with the chit-chat, we had a neighborhood to spruce up!

I grabbed my gear and got to work.

If you haven't volunteered in a while, I recommend you give it a try.

Doing something good that helps others, or something that makes your area more beautiful, conjures feelings that you can't get any other way.

We humans need to feel useful. We love to help.

When we get too caught up in our own pursuits, thinking of ourselves and our advancement, or seeking the next dopamine hit, we hollow ourselves out a little. Life needs to be more meaningful than that.

How far can we get, really, without meaning?

We need a well-branded, chapter-based (or open source) volunteer litter pickup program.

Each volunteer had their own pin (or, excuse me, badge):

These are the fabled Wombles!

I love the use of cute clever branding.

So many places have trash pickup volunteering events—but how do you find them?

Having a recognizable, memorable brand wrapped around these programs might help.

There needs to be a trash pickup brand that gets folks pumped to organize volunteers in their city.

Have you ever participated in a local litter pickup? Do you know if one is happening near you?

Check Keep America Beautiful's excellent directory. Sign up for updates on #trashtag web site.

Maybe can be Wombles together 🙂