Time flies.... another 6 weeks passed, so it was time to pop down to the babybank again.

The lovely Ambra joined us at our Wantead base for her first Goodgym experience - give her a cheer!

As always, Adam had bags of donated clothing waiting to be sorted sorted we arrived, with Elegia & Natalie joining us shortly after, having made their own ways there. We got stuck in sorting through it all, chatting along the way and ofcourse checking out some of the more unusual / cuter finds.

One of these days I will get round to taking a proper set of pictures, including a glimpse of the rest of the process, honestly, but for this one poster girls Ambra & Elegia will have to do 😁

• This Thursday 5/3, Foodbank at Frenfords
• Next group run 16/3
• Next babybank session currently 20/4, but might be brought forward since there is lots to do
• Most Saturdays - Valentines Parkrun (Linda's 200th on 14th!)

AJ got on her bike, in recording breaking warm weather, to We Don’t Waste to assist with partner agencies pick up. There was also a whole pallet box (aka a ‘Gaylord’) weighing in at 1,284lbs (584kg) which consisted solely of ‘BeBo’s Cinnamon Raisin Oatmeal’ energy bars which all had to be transferred to smaller containers for distribution - that was a lot of energy bars!

In the absence of our own rose (Linda had to pull out) we ended up finding our own!

The weather turned cold and miserable pretty quickly once the sun went down, so just the 2 regulars remained.

This time we went the other way round to Redbridge roundabout. grass had gotten too wet and slippery to climb the slopes to continue clearing the hidden stash of beer bottles, but we still ended up filling 6 bags, a paint bucket and adding more car parts to the existing piles.

Next round, 2 March - Babybank!

Valentines day fell on a Saturday... so a few extra numbers were to be expected at Valentines Parkrun. Not sure anyone could have predicted this volume though...

After a surprise surge last year, with numbers doubling the usual attendance, the main crew planned well to be able to cope with things this year. So well organised, no need for more people to sign up for volunteering, including Goodgym crew.

Ofcourse Ed is the exception to that, since he is very much part of the core parkrun volunteers - he took up his usual position marshaling the main car park. Linda joined Ed to give him a hand while I joined another regular, Liz, at the 2nd car park.

James, Julia & Jenny braved the crowds and ran, while Sharon took her time walking round and taking selfies with people (you might recognise a famous face in some pics...)

A few of the pictures give a hint of how busy it was, even early on - the queue to pose with the parkrun sign was significant at 8.30... not sure I'd want to know the toilet queues at any point! Guess the main indicator how extremely busy it became was when there was a 1/4 mile queue for the tokens and thus finish line... just about everyone was happily chatting & socialising making their way to the end though

So.... in case you were wondering, number... Normal attendance at Valentines is about 350-450, today at event #715 the finishers seem to total.... 2331

Huge admiration and compliments to the Parkrun crew for sorting it all out

6 Goodgym Members and 5 Friends of Frenford joined forces to get this months foodbank picking and packing done.

We all worked together like a well oiled machine and got the job done in no time.

A massive welcome to our two newbies Melanie and Simone who turned up full of enthusiasm and energy, they took to the job like ducks to water and seemed to really enjoy it too. Kudos also to Peter and Sharon for giving up some of their valuable annual leave to be there and to Linda and Ed for keeping the shelves full.

No, I am not referring to the team chatting away while going down the road. instead it is about the squeaky noises my picker made, which caused one of the other ones to wonder about birds being out in the darkness... 🤣😇

Total score for the evening: * 7 bags of litter * 2 NO2 canisters * 1 gas tank * pile of car bits

and we could have filled lots more bags, sadly...