A GROUP of young people from the TD1 Youth Hub took advantage of the recent teacher strikes to help clean up Galashiels town centre.

With school cancelled, the youngsters, who all play football for Gala Fairydean Rovers, volunteered to take to the streets and they collected 10 full bin bags of litter.

Accompanied by TD1 Youth Hub manager Douglas Ormiston and participation worker Rachael Scott, the group set off in a loop past Home Bargains and the Interchange the down past the medical centre and finished off at Tesco.

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During the day they met other members of TD1 Youth Action who joined in and their actions were praised by several members of the public.

The effort, which lasted around two hours, will count toward a Saltire Award which involves 10 hours of volunteering.

Ms Scott said: “It was the boys’ idea and they did really well. It was good to see them get some recognition from shoppers and you could see that they were proud of themselves at the finish.

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“It was also good other members of TD1 who were not part of the litter pick also getting stuck in and I think they were speechless at the amount of litter they collected.

“And they are keen to do it again with the next project being a river clean.”

Dozens of people have since posted messages of support on the group’s social media platforms.

Gala Fairydean Rovers Community Trust Chairman Graeme McIver also praised the efforts of the youngsters.

He said: "I want to congratulate all the young people involved in choosing to help clean up the town centre and help their local community.

"Gala is full of young people we can be proud of."

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