We joined The Charlton Society for a special litter-pick to clean up Charlton Village ready for the Christmas holidays. At first glance things didn't seem to be too bad but our team have a nose for rubbish and soon found some hot spots - down Charlton Church Lane, in the car park and round the back of the Co-op. Our finds included a broken chair, quite a lot of vapes (going to a scrap metal dealer for disposal), lots of bottles, two boxes of nitrous oxide cylinders (reported to the Council).

An hour of walking, talking and picking resulted in nearly 12 bags and a sparkling village. Thanks to the Village Greengrocer for rewarding us with apples, pears, tangerines and bananas - a really fruitful morning's work!

10 Walls Painted 9 Hedges pruned 8 (hundred) flyers posted 7 Gardens weeded 6 Litterpicks 5 ParkRuns Run! 4 Marshalls Cheering 3 Sheds sorted 2 Ceilings gilded and 1 run report to write now...

OK, so tonight's task did not involve all of the above. However, 10 goodgym-ers did meet for a very productive painting task this evening!

A meet up at Charlton House for a quick warm up led to a lovely run through some Charlton streets featuring several impressive festive lights displays. We ended at Charlton Manor Primary School where caretaker Michael briefed us on our task, which involved painting the walls & cupboards in the Key Stage One assembly hall, used by both the school and various community groups such as the Rainbows.

Brushes, rollers and containers at the ready, teamwork was key as we cut in, rollered & reached for the the top spots with the finest Magnolia emulsion. Time flew by but we covered lots of space, which now needs to dry for the next coat.

Big welcome back to Roshan for his second task with us in a week!

Great work all and Roller On the weekend for our GGG Social...!

On Saturday we've got Clean up Charlton and coffee. Next wednesday is TBC - watch this space!

Until next time 😁

Three amazing GoodGymers joined the wonderful regular volunteers at Hornfair junior parkrun this morning. Despite the wet and drizzly weather, our young runners showed brilliant spirit — and were cheered on every step of the way.

Linda, even though she signed up late, still came along and supported. Peter, whose local junior parkrun was cancelled, stepped in to help out too. And I took on one of the tailwalker roles, making sure everyone got around safely.

Fancy giving volunteering a try? We’d love to have you!

8 goodgym-ers met the Friends of Hornfair Park team for a chat & cleanup session today. We were greeted by a couple of Rockin' Robins ready to cheer us on, and soon, armed with litterpicks & bags, we plotted our route. It's a big park with lots going on, so the area outside the lido was first, which involved a battle against the hedges, then on to the tennis court perimeter and fences at the edge of the park. 

A veritable cocktail of weather awaited us, starting with a weak Winter Sun, progressing as the task went on to the beginnings of a Dark & Stormy.

The same could be said of our litter pickings, which ranged from discarded clothing, lots of trademarked takeaway boxes (no free advertising here...) and the evidence of a few parties including vodka bottles, beer cans and even a large lampshade resembling a disco ball...!

A great team makes the task fly by & soon we'd run out of time but had made an impact on getting the park a bit tidier, so excellent work all.

Take care & see you all soon 🙂

Despite the December chill, Julian led a determined crew of runners to yesterday’s GoodGym Greenwich task. Khai, Ceci and Kerry joined him on the run, while the rest of the team met us at the Brooklands School. We were especially pleased to welcome back Sevan, making a triumphant return after a work Christmas do, and Aman, who left Bristol early just to make it in time. That’s the kind of commitment that keeps GoodGym glowing - heroes, all of you!

Our mission for the evening was to paint the staff room and finish cleaning the cupboards. And true to the evening’s punny title (No Whisk, No Reward) we kicked things off by seeing what on earth we could use to stir the paint... it actually wasn't a whisk but we couldn't resist Khai's excellent pun anyway. With slightly fewer rollers and brushes than ideal (and absolutely no spare whisks), we embraced classic GoodGym ingenuity and made do with what we had. Before long, the first coat was on the walls and the cupboards were sparkling.

We didn’t quite manage to get around the whole room this time, but fear not, we’ll be back in January to finish the job!

Looking ahead, there’s plenty more GoodGym goodness on the horizon: 👉 This Saturday: Talk and Tidy and Westcombe Woodlands 👉 Next Wednesday: get ready to flex those painting muscles again for an indoor task at Arthur’s school!

Brilliant work everyone🛠️🎨💪🏽❤️

Until next time,

Rachel

We were blessed with yet another morning of sunshine at Hornfair Junior parkrun, and it truly made all the difference. The bright weather brought an extra spark of energy as we supported the event and cheered on the young runners through a smooth and cheerful session.

A big congratulations goes to the two young runners who received their milestone wristband's. One of them reached an astounding 200 runs, an achievement that deserves every bit of celebration. The post-event cakes shared among volunteers and families made the milestone even sweeter.

Once our first task wrapped up, we continued heading over to the Old Cottage Café. With the usual friendly team, we enjoyed a well-earned coffee and a catch-up before heading off to the next mission of the day: gardening at Mycenae Garden. We were pleased to see such a strong sign-up—clearly the sunshine had everyone motivated!

All in all, it was another wonderfully spent Saturday—sunshine, community, coffee, and good deeds all perfectly ‘park-run’ together. Here’s to the next one!