Katie and Steph Ducat met at the entrance of the park and went to the container where Karolis from Friends of Loughborough Park was busy with a patch. He dropped everything to get the gear out : plastic bags, litter pickers and magical loops. Either you know or you dont know the secret way of looping the bags as some of them are tricky. More volunteers appeared including Brenda from Goodgym. We all set off into the park to hunt down the litter left in this beautiful park. Usual suspects were paper, crisp wrappers, bottles, food waste and Steph Ducat found something that will keep someone safe in a way(see pic with blue item from Durex)!!A decision was taken here at one stage. After an hour the litter hunters returned to base and collected roughly 6 bags. Well done team!!No cake or coffee and the 3 Goodgymers walked to their next community mission in Brixton.

Satisfying work!

The Friends of Loughborough Park do a monthly litter pick of this lovely green space and it was a pleasure to enjoy their volunteers in the sunshine. Lots of people have had picnics in the park recently so there was loads of rubbish to collect! We divided and conquered the park, separating the waste into recycling and general waste. After our efforts we enjoyed a cup of tea and delicious apricot cake baked by one of the volunteers!

Fab first goodgym experience :)

Loughborough Park is a "Site of Importance for Nature Conservation" in recognition of its importance not just for wildlife, but also for people to enjoy access to nature.

Local residents and communities are now working to deliver a programme of improvements which will secure the park's future for all ages, interests and abilities to enjoy.

Our task today was to cut back and prune a large, invasive bush which was dominating a mound in the middle of the park and stifling other growth. There was a lot of it, but we took to the task with a variety of gardening tools; it took us an hour and a half, but we did an amazing job clearing the central area.

What do we like more than almost anything else at GoodGym? It's welcoming along new (and returning) GoodGymers!

Last night was a great occasion for exactly that reason, Area Activator Yianny and hardcore Lambeth legend Tilly were met by two 'new' members of the Lambeth Community. It was great to have Mark along for his very first session and also Katie who had previously been to tasks in Islington - with a GG t-shirt to prove it - but had been away for a while. Welcome both to the team!

Our category for last night was if you were a stuffed animal what would it be and why - we were therefore joined by a stuffed giraffe, leopard, penguin and a giant teddy bear :0)

We set off for the short hop over to Somerleyton Road / Loughborough Park to meet Jon from the Friends of Loughborough Park who was waiting for us with bunches of flyers. Organised as ever Jon had 300 or so flyers in bundles along with a handy map of the area to be covered. We had varying levels of map reading skills in the group, potentially a gap in age meant that some (ryhmes with 'scarier tractor grater') were a bit more comfortable with a good old fashioned paper map than others. Grumbles about smart phones

Anyway we set of in groups of two to hit as many of the flats and houses in the area to drum up interest and support for the FoLP to help with their weekly activities. If you are in the Loughborough Park area remember to check out the Community Missions each month as we always have a few sessions listed to help out around the park (and you get cake afterwards)! https://www.goodgym.org/admin/areas/lambeth/happenings/community-missions

In no time we had delivered all the flyers and it was time to meet back up and head back to Papa's. After a bit of back and forth we found each other and on arrival back at base Tilly had very kindly baked cookies for everyone - what more delicious way to end a Group Run than that??

Huge thanks to all and I look forward to seeing you at the next one.