Well, it was worth getting out of bed early on Saturday morning! I had a great time helping at the Vineyard shop in Richmond. The manager was lovely, the customers were chatty, and I felt a glow of good that stayed with me afterwards all weekend :)

I had fun sorting books, tidying toys and ordering clothes, very satisfying work. Especially knowing that funds raised from the shop goes directly to helping vulnerable people in the local community. Then I walked 1 hr home afterwards, of course!

On the first evening of astronomical autumn, we said goodbye to the warmth and sunshine by helping out at the Vineyard. Last time we were there was to put up Christmas decorations - so much has changed since!

The Vineyard Community Centre is dedicated to helping vulnerable individuals overcome personal crises, and the community at large build stronger bonds. They help a huge range of people in various ways, including a drop-in centre that can provide food, clothing and help with shelter. They also provide support for struggles with mental health, loneliness and addiction.

Due to COVID-19 their drop-in sessions and café have sadly not been running in recent months. Instead, they have been operating a food bank which has now been moved to All Saints. They hope to re-start many of the usual activities soon, and in preparation for this their floors were recently sanded down by builders. This left a covering of dust everywhere - that's where we come in!

Six of us turned up to clean the dusty residue off their furniture - mostly tables and chairs - and help to move it back to the normal layout. Armed with buckets of warm water, surface sprays and cloths, we made quick work of it all. Everything was sparkling clean and neatly re-organised within an hour. Head of Operations Sue expressed that they were extremely grateful for our help.

It feels great to make a difference to such an important community project and we look forward to being back at the Vineyard whenever they need any more help.

Food 4 thought with a donation of four items To the Vineyard Foodbank in Richmond.

Together tuna, rice, tikka masala sauce and bran flakes could make a very weird high fibre, hot tuna curry. But probably better to keep them apart.

A call out from our buddies at the Vineyard reached us to donate supplies to help them to continue to deliver goods to homes across the borough. At this unprecedented time, the Vineyard are experiencing the perfect storm of people being in greater need, a massive drop in food donations, and the complete loss of income from the shop and café - so they need our help now more than ever!

The group were delighted to take up the task. Luckily, with the supermarkets being a bit more stocked up it wasn't hard to tick off many of the goods the foodbank are running short of. Topping up with some generous donations from neighbours.

On a sunny Thursday afternoon, we donned our GoodGym T-shirts and each made our way to the Vineyard - ladened with rucksacks jostling against our backs as we ran, or looking like a circus trick-cyclist, with bags on backs, cereal boxes in baskets, and tin cans in panniers.

Kevin greeted each of us as we arrived - shouting out 'Hello GoodGym' & waving (from a safe distance!) Cathy and JP managed to 'bump' in to each other & bid a fond farewell for now...not before snapping a pic from a 2m distance :). AND our very own Anita and Harry may have even been captured in all their GG mad-bicycle-donation by a film crew...oooooo!!

It was fab to see the whole community come together from all walks of life donating what they could.

Next week's task for Richmond Foodbank is already live so sign up & donate what you can!

It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas as a wise man once said.

Facing the wintery temperatures of Richmond Green and celebrating Jenna’s birthday during the warm – up, fuelled by celebration chocolates, the Good Gymers were certainly determined to prove that was the case this evening at one of the local community charities in Richmond called The Vineyard.

The Vineyard Project sees itself as a place for the healing of personal loneliness, the development of a sense of community and the breaking down of divisions in the locality, facilitating communications between sources of help and of need.”

What better way to symbolise what this charity represents than by helping them prepare and decorate for this well-known season that encourages the warmth of family time and togetherness.

Among those decorations assembled and hung up included typical red and green decorations being dangled from the ceiling, Christmas trees being prepared and carefully placed and neon flashing lights successfully turned on.

The Good Gymers were subsequently well rewarded for their festive work with delicious pastry treats.

Congratulations to Ellen, Aaisha and Gavin for completing their first Good Gym run this evening, well done to Leticia, Luke and Jessie for doing a first Good Gym run in Richmond. Finally, welcome back to Teresa who successfully led the walking group this evening. Yay she is back!!

See you next Monday at Wholefoods for what promises to be another rewarding task of brightening up the community Landmarks centre in Teddington!

Well, what a turnout. No fewer than 28 GoodGymers – including GG visitors, faces we’d not seen for a while, and a couple of new folks – crowded round a table in Wholefoods ahead of our Richmond Group Run. After the briefing, we headed over to the Green to warm up (how many more times will we get to enjoy a warm-up on the grass this year?), with Mark taking us through our paces with a variety of (pretty complex and confusing) exercises in motion.

GoodGym Richmond gets moving on a Monday! #warmup #moves #crab #squat #dance #fun #volunteering #runninggroup #Richmond pic.twitter.com/w1qwKyPVw4

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) September 3, 2019

Suitably warmed up, the main group set off for the undulating hill run up the Church road – down the Kings and up the Queens … Nearly a full house! Chatting was constant until we hit Queens Road and then we experienced the HUSH ON THE HILL. It was like I had gone deaf as the runners set there sights on the top and made focus strides to conquer the hill (last dulation). Meanwhile the walkers power walked through the remains of Richmond Palace (learning a little of the local history on the way), along the river front and up Richmond Hill to the Vineyard, resisting the temptation to pop into the pub next door on the way...

Running drills where try to leave each other , but none of us really want to! #staytogether #runtogether #runninggroup #goodgym #volunteering #richmond pic.twitter.com/d2VsURdKU7

— GoodGym Richmond (@GGRichmon) September 3, 2019

So, what does The Vineyard do? Pretty much everything you can imagine to support the needy in the community: a morning drop-in for people in crisis (through homelessness, addiction or mental or social difficulty), a foodbank providing emergency food for local people in need, a skills and training social enterprise for those hoping to move forward from crisis, personal health advice towards appropriate treatment and care, and a charity selling clothing and providing clothing support for rough sleepers and household goods for those newly homed after being on the streets. It really is a mega-charity right here in Richmond.

It was December when we were last there, doing a combination of clothes sorting and leafleting, and this time is was nice to spend a balmy evening in the garden. It was lucky there were so many of us because the task was a BIG one. The centre had been closed for some weeks of building work and with the new season fast approaching, had their work cut out to be ready in time. Enter GoodGym. Lists of jobs were handed round and the group divided into small teams to conquer each one. As is our way, everyone rolled up their sleeves and got stuck in – sweeping, sawing, shoveling, compost-spreading, dismantling, lifting, stacking, leaf-blowing (when the plug wasn’t being pulled out by mistake…) and generally tidying the place up inside and out.

It’s amazing to see a team working in harmony and ploughing through the tasks, and before long the garden was looking fantastic – as far as we could tell as dusk descended on us, anyway! Before sending us off on our way back to town, task owner Desiree surprised us with an amazing reward of more delicious Hummingbird Bakery cupcakes than even 28 of us could manage. After a quick photo on the benches inside, we headed back to Wholefoods to warm down, before gathering in the Tap Tavern for our monthly social.

Welcome to Ciara and Naveed on your first Richmond run and welcome back to Jon for his second run with us. Wonderful to welcome over two Hounslow folk Remy and Michelle as well. Hope to see all of you back soon!