Meeting by the FGS HQ entrance, we ran through a few stretches this morning, before heading out to today’s task.

Working with Lambeth-and-Southwark-based Get Rid of and Donate, today saw us sorting donated toys and books for local schools and families.

But first the run.

Matt was tasked with route navigation again, and he led a brilliant run (barely any traffic, and some picturesque streets and squares en route).

On arrival at our task location, we were welcomed into a warm hall…

Draper Hall, located in the heart of Elephant and Castle, was very kindly hosting this activity, with task owner Jayne setting up trestle tables with clear signage for ages vs donated items ahead of our arrival.

The task at first glance seemed enormous, but the team nonetheless wasted no time grabbing spreadsheets, bags, labels, and bundles of book-and-toy know-how, left by Andrea from Get Rid of and Donate.

Moving from bag to bag, table to table, working across six schools and multiple families, we assessed who would like what, from the colourful, fun and interesting range of items of available.

From Harry Potter to Pokemon rucksacks; WiiFits to My Little Pony, we aimed to combine lively reading material with fun and exciting toys.

The time sped by – a little bit too speedily. Two hours in, with 5 of the 6 schools completed, the team started to pack away remaining donated items, bin any rubbish, and stack everything neatly and carefully for Andrea to collect.

With the runners expertly led back to base by Matt, we concluded it had been a productive and interesting morning. Well done to the whole team (and a big thank you to Southwark Area Activator Sam for co-ordinating this task).

Until next time.

Sandy from the Kennington Park TRA also works at Draper Hall and needed GoodGym's help to sort out the community centre's storage box. Paulin and Sam met her at 10:30 to do an hour of re-organising. Since the main hall was being used, they took the old box of toys, games and electronics out into the courtyard to sort into two new plastic containers. They divided this as games (with toys) and electronics.

Once they were done with this, they still had 20 minutes, so they went into Sandy's office to re-arrange items that had been scattered across her office. We helped her identify spaces to put things away.

The last few minutes, we were shown the mural that was done in May and talked about the future. It was great to catch up and help Sandy. She promises to put on a BBQ at Kennington Park Estate in July and August. We look forward to it! 😊

We gathered outside the FGS offices for today’s warm-up, ready for our task in Draper Hall.

What is Draper Hall?

Draper Hall is a charity in the heart of Elephant & Castle bringing arts, culture, fitness, warmth and hospitality to the Draper Estate and surrounding area. The charity’s aim is to, ‘join together through a collective effort, to provide what the community needs.’

The Centre runs after-school clubs, Stay Warm hubs, exercise classes and room-hire.

Run by Sandy and Chalice, this hive of activity is continually busy, so a few pairs of hands to help with a couple of big clearing tasks today proved very timely.

After a decent-length run, expertly navigated and paced by Matt, we arrived at the centre, glad to be given the opportunity to catch our breath as we waited for the walking group.

At shortly after 2, we were ready to be briefed by Sandy in the warm Draper office.

Four fantastic tasks...

We initially started with four tasks: one team on shed clearing, another on boiler room clearing; a team dispatched to nearby Sherston House for cupboard clearing, and Ashik on locker-code-unscrambling (as it sounds).

As always, the team’s pace was phenomenal. And this task didn’t just involve lots of physical activity: the team had to dedicate a lot of brain power figuring out best use of space; what should be kept, what needed to go, in order to make optimum use of these precious storage areas for the Hall and the community groups who use them.

And yes, the time flew!

At 3pm, teams still had to load items back in the shed and commence the big clean-up effort. But we got there, thanks to their speed and fantastic project management by Sandy.

At shortly before 3:30 we were posing for a final picture in the pretty garden, joined by Chalice who’d popped in to see how we were getting on (and who’d created game-changing task sheets in preparation for today).

We headed back to the office, in two teams once again, promising to return in the not-too-distant future.

A brilliant and thoroughly enjoyable effort.

...And not forgetting a huge cheer for Southwark Area Activator Sam, who arranged the task and put us in touch with Sandy and Chalice. (Keep an eye out for future tasks at Draper Hall…).

Until next time.