Essex youngsters raise £2.1k with their 100-mile litter picking tour

Cousins Alexa Bacon, eight, and Rosie Mills, nine, have been clearing up litter while raising money for the Rewilding Britain charity.

The pair are separated by the Covid-19 lockdown, with Alexa in Gosfield and Rosie in Oxfordshire, but they haven’t let that stop them as they soldier on to their 100-mile target.

The pair are collectively walking 100 miles throughout March while litter picking to clean up their wildlife areas.

Team - Rosie Mills joining cousin Alexa in the litter pick

Alexa’s mum, Amy Bacon, 39, said: “My daughter, Alexa, and her cousin, Rosie, have pledged to walk 100 miles between them through the month of March whilst collecting litter along their route.

“Their aim is to improve the habitat of the local wildlife and also to raise money for the charity Rewilding Britain to aim to improve the habitats of wildlife across the UK.

“So far they have walked over 60 miles and raised more than £2,000 as well as removing lots and lots of litter from their local areas.

“They have shown amazing drive and determination and been out in all weathers and all times of day to do this.”

The cousins, who refer to themselves as Team Chipmunk, have smashed their original target of £100 and have now raised £2,145.

Alexa, who goes to St Margaret’s Preparatory School in Gosfield, usually walks about three-and-a-half miles every other day to reach her individual 50 mile target.

She will also pick litter while walking the two miles to school each day.

Alexa Bacon

On each walk, Amy says she will normally pick up three full carrier bags of litter but this can vary as, on a shorter 1.2-mile walk, Alexa picked up nearly two bin liners full of discarded trash.

Amy says Alexa has found a “surprising” amount of glass bottles on her walks as well as a lot of crisp packets, beer cans and plastic bags.

For the time being, Alexa is storing her litter finds in the family’s barn.

She is piling all the bags of litter she finds in order to clearly see just how much one little girl has been able to clean out of the Gosfield area in just one month.

Rosie is also doing the same with her litter finds.

Rosie Mills

After Alexa and Rosie hit their targets, they will be able to see how much they picked up and then plan on sorting the rubbish in order to send what they can away to be recycled.

Amy said the girls were inspired by a visit to Canada in 2019, as well as a Sir David Attenborough documentary highlighting the dangers of litter on the planet.

Litter-buster -

She added: “We started off with a target of just £100.

“We hoped maybe a few generous grandparents could chip in but it kind of just snowballed.

“The charity noticed the fundraiser and got in touch. They shared it on their Facebook page.

“Now the girls have raised nearly £2,200.

“They were first inspired when we took a trip to Canada in 2019 for a wedding.

“They saw a lot of the wildlife, and there are a lot of chipmunks, so they formed Team Chipmunk.

“The remit of the teams is to simply look after their local wildlife and they’ve recently been Facetiming each other to brainstorm different ideas.

“They also watched one of Sir David Attenborough’s documentaries and they were quite upset afterwards but they were inspired to try and do something.

“They have been chatting via Zoom to one another and they decided they want to collect litter to help their local wildlife.”

The pair are continuing their drive until the end of the month and are hoping to raise as much money as possible.

To donate to their fundraising cause, visit justgiving.com/fundraising/TeamChipmunk100mileMarch.