33 Goodgymers ran between 6-8km to collect Christmas trees and move tons of soil for St Lukes Community Centre!

Welcome along to the newbies - Amy, Fiona and Anita - thanks for coming along guys.

In the news this week:

1. GG Starter Session next Saturday - bring your friends!!
2. Also people from GG Islington are doing Finsbury Park Parkrun on 26th February if you'd like to join.
3. There is a Community Mission helping Crouch End Open Spaces this Sunday, it ends with an epic picnic - come along :)

Woah it's our 4th birthday and we had a huge turnout! We started the evening by singing happy birthday to ourselves ha - nice!

Thank you very much for coming last night and over the last four years to GG Islington; it means a lot to me, the first trainer Simon and GoodGym Central. We've done lots of good in that time (over 5900 good deeds) and have run really far! Well done!

Last night we had two tasks:

Christmas tree collection:

James led a team of 10 people to Barnsbury area to collect up Christmas tree's, after last week's epic 125 tree's (arguably a GG record) and all the Islington Council pickups it was going to be a proper hunt!

Having running around the streets in Barnsbury and Caledonian Road areas the team collected a lovely 10 tree's to be sent over for recycling.

St Lukes - Earth Move:

After a 3km run down hill we arrived to help the wonderful St Lukes Community Centre, there were 23 of us to help and get stuck in!

The task was big but simple, the aim was to empty two huge planters of soil, then move those planters to their new positions outside the new shed! It took over 30 minutes to empty the planters of soil and the logs weighing them down; filling wheelbarrows, pots and tubs with soil. Meanwhile teams moved large garden pots and cleaned up.

One of those BIG TASKS!

Once the soil was emptied the next logistical challenge was moving the planters, this involved strength and smarts - luckily you guys had both! After they were moved we quickly refilled them with all the soil.

We returned home for a stretch, bourbon biscuits and a pub birthday party which included a quiz!

Thanks for coming everyone!

Sign up for next week here when we'll be helping the Met Police and Waterside Adventure Playground.

PB out

20 GoodGymers ran 7km to help St Lukes Community Centre chicken pens & food!

Welcome along to newbies Duncan, Corinne and Frankie whose first time it was last night!

In the news this week:

1. We are having our monthly social next Monday at the pub after the group run - come along!
2. A massive well done to Chris Ellaway who reached 50 good deeds last night! Amazing - he has been coming to GoodGym for over a year and has made a massive impact in Islington and Camden - well done :)
3. This Saturday is the April Monthly Long Run - 9 miles, two speeds and pizza finish!
4. It's the GoodGym Olympics on 30th June and GG Islington will want a big team out there to win big! Get practicing with you egg and spoon.

Spring sprung last week but April showers were upon us last night. After a quick warm up we headed south via Liverpool Road and through the busyness of Angel. The staff we glad to see us at St Lukes Community Centre, when we arrived.

This is a fantastic modern Community Centre provides a space for local people to gather and socialise, and for them and other organisations to deliver services and activities for the local community at little or no cost.

Our tasks for the evening were threefold:

1. Frances led a team of 6 to put all the chicken food and chicken bedding inside black rat proof boxes. Splitting the piles into three - green food, yellow food and bedding - the team worked well and piled it all back into the shed.
2. A squad led by Alex filled three planters with compost until 2 inches below the border of the planter. They then mixed the compost thoroughly with forks and leveled the top. These planters will soon be full of SPRING PLANTS!
3. Kike led a group to fill the chicken cage with a layer of woodchip to a level of 10cm. This job involved having several people in the cage while the others emptied the bag into it. Nice!

Good chicken!

After sweeping up and packing away the cardboard into the recycling we took a group picture and headed home for a stretch and a bourbon biscuit!

Sign up for next week here, we are off to Caxton House to do various gardening tasks!

PB out.

20 GoodGymers ran 5-7km to help St Lukes & Ramsey Flowers N1 with some SPRING gardening!

Thanks to everyone who came last night, SPRING had SPRUNG and halle-frikin-lujah! Running in light evenings is probably one of my favourite things, made all the better by running with you guys.

In the news this week:

1. IMPORTANTLY we are meeting at the Arc Centre next Monday (2nd April), on 9th April and 23rd April. Don't come to Arsenal, we won't be there then. We will be meeting at the Arsenal Hub on 16th April and 30th April though.
2. Well done to everyone who ran, raced and got a PB at the Colchester Half Marathon on Sunday! Kike got a 15 minute PB, Graham smashed it with 1.22 and James ran well on no breakfast (everyone please eat before running/racing)
3. Come along on Wednesday to GG Camden when we will be doing the Biggest Task of the Year Part Two at the Southbank Centre - lifting the turf for the roof garden up all those stairs!

St Lukes Report by Aidan:

8 of us set off to St Luke’s. Well... 7 runners and 1 cyclist. Even injury doesn’t stop Steve C doing good!

We briefly entertained the idea of forming a race, Beat the Bike, but then realised we would certainly lose. So we headed off down Liverpool Road in search of a good deed. After navigating our way around the busy Angel area we arrived at St Luke’s and of course Steve had beaten us, it was an easy win for him, but at least he was happy.

Beat the Bike

St Luke’s Community Centre have been transforming their car park into a food garden for the community to use, we’ve been helping them with the heavy lifting since the start and it has truly transformed over that time.

Tonight we had two planters to move, one to empty and a nice mountain of compost bags to move into the shed. Both planters were hefty tasks, but with the combined strength of 8 GoodGymers nothing could stop us!

All covered in mud, with smiles on our faces, we enjoyed some of Steve’s Scottish shortbread (love a bit of alliteration). Some of us were good and washed up before snacking the lovely biscuits, the rest of us were too peckish and went for a lovely mouthful of biscuit with a side of compost. Yum.

To finish us off Graham led back via Upper St for a change of scenery. Beautiful. Good deed done.

Ramsey Flowers N1 by PB:

12 of us headed east to help the amazing Ramsey Flowers N1, we went via Highbury Fields and Balls Pond Road - arriving earlier than planned. While waiting for Natasha to arrive we played the demonstration game doing tons of conditioning, including - squats, backward lunges, star jumps, mountain climbers, planks and MORE.

We met Natasha from Ramsey Flowers N1 who told us that the Ramsey walk and nature reserve is now looked after by volunteers and used for local events. Any help that we provide is massively appreciated as many of the volunteers are older residents and cannot do as much of the heavy lifting.

Spring Flowers

Collecting up the tools (some brand new!) we split into the following tasks:

• Roisin, Kike, Nina and Roz swept the pathways - collecting up any dead leaves, twigs and debris
• Steve and Chris litter picked and spread compost around newly planted flowers
• Meg, Claire and Alison cut and trimmed back some bushes and ivy that was coming on the pathways
• James and Constance cleared an area for planting

As each group finished their tasks we focused on clearing an area of ivy and roots, then planting some flowers and composting it so it grows!

Heading home we stretched and distributed the party bags Paola had kindly given us from Ramsey Flowers N1 :)

Next week we are meeting at the Arc Centre and painting the Arc Centre - sign up here.

PB out.

24 GoodGymers ran between 4-7km to pack 50 bags of muck for Frelighters Farm & lift 40 bags of compost of St Lukes - corrr!

Thank you for coming along last night, all the fun and more. Welcome along to Sarah, Winston, Sarah, Roisin, Will and Sarah - lovely to have you all along.

In the news this week:

1. Well done to everyone who ran, raced and cheered the Big Half on Sunday - GoodGym even made the official video!
2. It's the GG Monthly Drinks at the Greenwich Tavern this Thursday, come along for puns, fun and Pritesh shouting haha!
3. A massive well done to Alix whose 50th Good Deed it was last night - your black shirt is on it's way!

The snow storm is over for London and GG Islington is back and immersing into Spring - nice! This week we were helping the wonderful Freightliners City Farm and St Lukes Community Centre, both brilliant charities in Islington.

Farm Report from PB:

After warming up with the entire group, 14 of us headed to Islington's City Farm via Highbury Fields. Upon our arrival Liz told us that our main task for the evening was to shovel and bag lots of muck for them to sell and send to local community groups. "We dung good tonight said a man called James, he was speaking of all the pooooo shovelling!"

10 people got in the muck pairing up with one forking and the other bagging. Beth and Chima acted as collectors, grabbing the 2/3 bags of poo to pile up. Over 25 minutes everyone did great work bagging and shovelling! Really nice smells - mmmmmm.

Wellies in the smellies

Meanwhile Claire and Sarah prepared a fundraising board to help the farm to raise funds to keep the farm sustaining and building. Once we were all finished with the muck and drawing we took pictures with the animals and ate custard creams (A GoodGymer's dream!)

After our return to the Emirates we did our monthly time trial - everyone did great, with Jonathan coming in first and Alex soon behind. Well done all :)

St Lukes Report from Alix:

After a gentle 3/4k on tired legs from the weekend's long runs and races, we arrived at St Luke's where our task for the evening was to move bags of compost into the shed from two areas. Following Kike's suggestion, we formed a human chain to deal with the first pile and after some fumbling we all had our technique down and made light work of this.

Team work!

We then moved on to bigger containers of several compost bags and after one team made a valiant effort at pulling/pushing one in one go, we had to resign ourselves to wheelbarrows. A quick group picture, a few hobnobs and a lot of handwashing later, we were making our way back to Arsenal to rejoin the other group and stretch our upper bodies, which badly needed it!

Next week we are off to shovel more compost for Sunnyside Community Centre - sign up here

PB out.

17 GoodGymers ran between 5-8km helping both St Luke's & Sunnyside Gardens!

Welcome along to Katie and William who were new to GoodGym last time - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week, it's all about socials:

1. Last GG Monthly Drinks of the year next Thursday in Stratford - all details here
2. GG Christmas Party is on Friday 8th December at Battersea Art Centre - costume theme is BLACK & RED!

St Luke's report by Steve:

The fabulous five, the famous five or the fantastic five - take your pick! Yes five of us made our increasingly regular way down to St. Luke's to perform our usual functions: moving stuff from one place to another. This time it was topsoil and chairs.

All in a Monday evenings work

The night was distinctly chilly but we were not deterred. Down Liverpool Road, through the Angel and on to Central Street: running at night in a group is so enjoyable. We soon warmed up, arrived and performed. Twenty five minutes later, job done, we retraced our steps and, hey presto, back to base.

Sunnyside report by PB:

After a quick warm up we headed north towards Crouch Hill, trying to stay on the back streets as much as possible. Once we arrived Anna from Sunnyside Community Centre & Gardens explained our task for the evening - we were going to moving two compost piles - if you turn them over they turn into compost quicker! Nice!

Sunnyside Community Gardens, founded in 1977, when local residents lobbied the council to let them use an area of wasteland to create a community garden. The site was transformed into a landscaped garden with a meadow area, a small pond, neat paths and a wooded are for all the community to enjoy. We were there to help them!

HOT COMPOST!

We got to work - first off making a new compost area with logs. Then we spent 30 minutes forking, shovelling and grabbing compost from one pile to another. It got pretty hot work when moving the pile that was a week old - steaming! After a solid workout and a huge help for Sunnyside we headed back home in two groups, leaving 5 minutes between each other.

Well done all, another great Monday evening!

Sign up here for next week, we are off to Thornhill Square Gardens & Rose Bowl.

PB out.