It's not often we're accompanied by a bear, but that's exactly what happened during our task this evening! 🐻

We gathered at Welling Library, where Julie and Alex from Discover Welling were waiting for us. Alex was dressed as a rather large, cute bear. Julie had brought along a big roll of stickers promoting Welling Sparkle, the town's Christmas market.

Our task was to put the stickers on all 72 lamp posts along the high street. We split into two teams, unwound a supply of stickers for each and set off in opposite directions to cover the ground as efficiently as possible.

Working along one side of the road, we peeled the stickers from their backing roll and applied two to each lamp post to create a complete wrap. Once we'd reached the end of our stretch, we crossed over and worked our way back along the other side, eventually meeting up with the other team.

(In case you were worried, the stickers use a low-tack adhesive, so they'll come off cleanly after the event. And the council had sanctioned their application to the lamp posts.)

Our friendly bear was certainly a hit with passers-by, handing out high fives and stopping for photos. It was lovely to see so many smiles along the way!

Welling High Street is a long one, so we certainly clocked up some good mileage while getting all those lamp posts dressed for the Sparkle ✨.

Let's hope our efforts help bring plenty of people along to the event. A bear-y good evening's work! 🐻

Sunday afternoon, and four GoodGymers headed to Welling to help Discover Welling get ready for Remembrance, putting up poppies along the High Street. We were joined by two local councillors.

With Storm Boelo doing its best to blow us away, it was a bit of a battle against the elements! Each lamp post got a poppy on either side, secured with cable ties, Hopefully they'll stay put in the gale!

We also added a sprinkling of poppies to the Welling cannon, making sure it was dressed for the occasion.

A few passers-by stopped to say thank you as we worked, which was a lovely reminder of how meaningful this task is.

With the poppies in place and a good step count under our belt, we decided to try iCakes, a new artisan café and bakery, for hot drinks to warm up. There we had a lovely surprise: free waffles and ice cream from their trial menu 🧇.

What a great way to spend a couple of hours on a Sunday!

Discover Welling does a fantastic job helping to make the town a nicer place to live, and we were happy to lend a hand this evening, giving some TLC to the planters on the High Street and clearing leaves and litter from around the area.

While some of us tackled the prickly thistles that had taken hold in one of the flower beds, others blitzed the litter and gathered up fallen leaves.

Then it was time to get planting! Lots of daffodil bulbs were carefully dug in, ready to bring a lovely splash of yellow to the High Street next spring. 🌼

Once the tools were packed away, we enjoyed the tasty Jaffa Cake cookies that have been the talk of recent tasks. They certainly lived up to the hype! 🍪 Thank you, Alice!

Three of us then headed to the nearby pub for a bit of socialising and to round off a productive evening together. 🍻

A great evening of teamwork, gardening, tidying and community spirit.

It's not often that GoodGym is asked to go out and look for fairies, but there's a first for everything!

Discover Welling had invited us to test their augmented virtual reality trails, created using a new app called Love Exploring.

As an 'anytime task' GoodGymers could do it as and when they wanted, before the deadline.

Kam was the first to give it a go, finding a few virtual reality tree fairies 🧚‍♀️, then giving feedback to Discover Welling via an online form.

The rest of us decided to meet up and try the trails together. Between us we found not only VR tree fairies, but various VR bugs too, including a giant - and rather scary - ladybird 🐞.

We loved the concept but the Love Exploring app had quite a few bugs of its own that need to be ironed out so that Discover Welling's creativity can shine though.

Today's Danson House Producers Market had a distinctly superhero feel as we teamed up to help run Discover Welling's retro fairground games stall.

With the classic Leap Frog and Roll-A-Ball games, we encouraged market-goers of all ages to test their skills while raising funds for a great cause.

The stall attracted plenty of attention, helped in no small part by a visit from Spider-Man himself!

There were smiles, near misses, and a few spectacular victories as players embraced the challenge. As Spider-Man says, "Anyone can win a fight when the odds are easy", but propelling that frog onto the lily pad proved a little trickier!

Money raised from the games will support Welling's Christmas lights and Discover Welling's other community projects that help make the town a brighter, more welcoming place to live.

We had fun spinning a web of laughter and helping to ensure that, with great community spirit, great things can happen in Welling.

We were out at the Community Fun Day in East Wickham, helping Discover Welling with their stalls. The team got stuck into running the fairground games, encouraging visitors to have a go, cheering them on, and politely pretending that some of the throws were, “very close indeed”. There was plenty of laughter and a good bit of friendly competition.

Alongside the games, we were busy chatting to residents, families and visitors throughout the day. It was a brilliant chance to be part of a local event that brought people together, raised smiles, and proved once again that no British summer fayre is complete without someone desperately asking their parents, “Can I have another go?”

Most importantly, the day helped raise money for Discover Welling and promoted other fantastic charities, including The KITE Foundation and Diabetes UK. So every game played, every pound donated, and every heroic attempt at winning contributed to some brilliant causes.

A huge well done to everyone involved in organising the day and making East Wickham feel even more community spirited than usual. GoodGym came, helped, laughed, and left with the warm glow of doing good, plus a renewed respect for anyone who can actually win one of those games on the first try!