The weather gods were on our side as we made our way to The Power Station Youth Centre in Mortlake. Despite the threat of thunderstorms, the rain didn’t come, and seven of South West London’s finest had come to do good.

Danielle prepped us for the task at ask tonight - helping to clear the old tape lines on the gym floor, so that they can be relaid. After years of wear, the lines were faded and worn away, and it was hard to tell the difference between the netball court and the football pitch.

Time to call in the Scrape GOATs. For those not in the know, a goat is no longer just a horny mammal that can produce delicious cheese. These days, the acronyms stands for the Greatest Of All Time, and I’d like to think of us as being up there as some of the best people.

Armed with a plethora of scraping tools and razors, we were on our hands and knees (or at least squatted down) attacking the tape lines, and peeling them successfully away. This was followed by Danielle getting handy with the ‘Goo Be Gone’, a magic potion that does exactly what it says on the bottle. With the sticky tape residue soaked, we were back on the floor with soapy scourers, wiping off what was remaining, and mopping up the mess.

Although we felt like we could be in jail, scrubbing away at the floors on all fours, I promise you we were all their out of our own free will! This inspired the prison mugshot-esque group photo (and a rare pic where smiley Suze isn’t smiling!).

It was great to see what a difference we had made, and the sticky old tape lines were replaced with sparkling clean floor lines. Maybe Danielle made a mistake in not getting us to clean the whole gym floor whilst we were at it! It was lovely to have Sam back with us, traveling from the distant lands of East London, and a big welcome to Rachael from the yet-to-be-started Merton GoodGym. If anyone knows of anyone in the Merton area who is interested in getting GoodGym up and running (or walking or cycling) there, then please shout. Until then, Rachael you are more than welcome here at Richmond.

A team of GoodGym Richmond’s stupendous seven made their way across to Power Station youth club in Mortlake to do some good.

We weren’t quite sure what we were going to get up to, but whatever it was, we’d apple-y get on with it… Danielle the youth leader showed us tables laden with fresh produce. Curly kale, marvellous marrows and an abundance of apples. The challenge, if we should accept it was to prepare the crates of fruit to freeze, ready for future apple crumbles and pies.

We core-dially accepted, and chopped to it, prepping ourselves with the knives and chopping boards. Some of us solo and some in pears, we cut the fruit into chunks and sprinkled over cinnamon before bagging it up for freezing. Amazingly, despite trusting us with sharp objects there were no injuries (even with some flying footballs courtesy of Sam in the room)!

Forty or so minutes later, there were multiple plump bags of sweetly cinnamoned apples ready for the freezer. A quick clean up, and a peel good job done. There was even time to enjoy the, ahem, versatility of the humble courgette in its overgrown form for a group photo.

As we left the youth club, we were greeted by darker skies and a spitting of rain from overhead. Time to fruit off back home until next week!

A tropical evening for a longer 8km round trip to AFC Powerstation Youth Zone in Mortlake made for a hot start to the task. Arriving at the club, we were first shown the completed gym refurb that we helped start on our last visit - it looked amazing!

Task owner Danielle asked us to help with two tasks: getting out the staging and checking it was all in good order for band nights, and chopping up the pineapple and watermelon that had been received from City Harvest so that it could be frozen for smoothies later in the week.

The stage team were so excited by their efforts that fruit chopping was halted for a great team photo, latex gloves and all! 🤣

Stage complete, fruit bagged up and everyone re-watered and ready to run we said our goodbyes and headed off into the evening sun. ☀️

In case you didn’t know, this week is national volunteers week, where those who give up their time for free to help others are celebrated. Although it might have been a regular Monday group run here in Richmond, we were sure to celebrate and appreciate the work we do here at GoodGym!

After a warm-up which was true to its name, we made our way down to Mortlake to meet Danielle at the Power Station Youth Centre. There are a handful of youth clubs run by Achieving for Children in the Richmond borough, and over the years GoodGym Richmond have supported these brilliant places. The team there are so grateful and appreciative of the help we have given them, and tonight was no exception.

Danielle was currently in the process of updating the gym in the youth centre. She had cleared out the equipment and the next step was to lay down new flooring. Before this could happen, the old worn foam underlay needed removing. This was where we came in…

If it wasn’t a sticky and sweaty enough day already, there was a full body work out to be had in scraping and peeling and pulling the foam flooring off. A task much harder than it looked.

Whilst most of the gang were getting their work out in the gym, a few were helping Danielle with a different exercise - building new equipment racks. A local band were playing in one of the music rooms upstairs, and were soundtracked by Stevie Wonder on the sax, but downstairs was a different kind of groove. Heavy metal, coordination and a steady eye were needed to make sure the new shelves were straight and stable (and would fit in the gym room!).

An hour later (and literal blood, sweat and tears), our time was up and we had all definitely had a real work out. Danielle thanked us as we left the youth centre, and we mustered up any strength left for a bit more cardio - the run back!

Squat a great evening - we certainly lived up to our name tonight putting the good and the gym into GoodGym. Weight to go!

A team of 6 ran a very wet 3.5km from the Tap Tavern to the Powerstation meeting an additional two team members at the task to help clear the clutter that's been building over the past year or two during the pandemic. The Powerstation looked great, but they had a big job on their hands. We cleared alot of waste, set up their new football goals and had alot of fun in the process whilst making a decent dent in the task. Once we were done we ran the 3.5km back and headed home to dry off.