A good-sized team of 17 met at busy Bethnal Green tube this afternoon, to head to the wonderful Weavers’ Adventure Playground.

What were we doing, and why?

Weavers Adventure Playground has been welcoming children through its gates since 1974. With dedicated staff offering decades of experience and commitment, programme sign-ups of individual children reached over 600 during the summer period in 2021.

This playground is an oasis for local families, offering the ideal environment for children to socialise, learn and play.

Volunteers are always welcome, to help with everything from clearing and tidying the well-used hall, to tending to the green spaces.

How it started

We made our way along Bethnal Green Road, strolling and power-walking at different speeds.

We enjoyed a detour via Weavers Fields, where we ran through this afternoon’s itinerary; the health and safety stuff, and a few pre-task stretches.

We then made our way around the corner to the bright, fun-looking playground to meet Alex…

The list of tasks...

Yep, Weavers’ Alex was leading our activity, and on arrival at the playground, proceeded to welcome us to the site, and tell us what we would be doing this afternoon. Armed with a clipboard and a lot of jobs, we were swiftly divided into six teams:

One group headed out to the large shipping container, to empty it, separate items aaand… you guessed it, refill it.

Another team headed to the stone creatures (as it sounds) to give them a lick of paint, and, as Alex put it, to “beautify them”.

Another painting team headed out to the bench in the swings area to give it a few coats of multi-coloured paints of their choice.

The weeding team headed in no less than three different directions: one to the far corner of the park to tackle stubborn weeds, including bindweed making its way up the basketball court fence; another to the opposite side, by Weavers’ Fields, to cut the hedge back and tackle more stubborn weeds, while a third weeding team spent the entire time making the borders by the play park absolutely pristine.

And there was the mowing task. This consisted of a sterling solo effort, Team Tim, who negotiated an increasingly temperamental mower with a lot of uneven terrain (with a lot of tenacity).

It was all go, for two hours.

The teams didn’t stop, barely pausing to grab a sip of water.

The rain came and went; the crew unperturbed, as they lifted crate after crate; painted, dug, mowed and cleared.

Before we knew it, 3:30 was approaching and the clean-up effort commenced.

Dropping paint brushes into bins of water, securing the container fence, the team blitzed the tidying in the same enthusiastic manner they’d completed their tasks.

We posed for one final picture with Alex, before making our way to the basketball court, where Tim led the basketball fitness, and the rest of the team sped through some balance, abs and lower body moves, before we all joined for a quick final stretch and pic.

Way to go everyone.

Well done for all your hard work and for making it such good fun.

Until next time.

On arrival at Weaver's Adventure Playground, the team were well settled in: I was greeted by Eimear and Heather who were busy painting the external wall, and on stepping inside the playground, a team of four - Neil, Rohan, Chris and John - were rolling supersized logs across the playground, waiting to be expertly electric-sawed by Alex.

Meanwhile, Sian and Joel were knee-deep in soil, digging a hole for the apple tree to be relocated to, that Nadia, Jess and Clelia were all tackling. It was a morning of stubborn roots for sure.

The team didn't let up for one minute - the apple tree digging team became one, as Jess and Clelia lugged it, roots and all, over to the newly dug team, while Team Logs soon joined Alex to join in the manual sawing of dense, dense wood.

It was exhausting just to watch! And what a contribution: this small team helped brilliant playworker Alex tackle these time-consuming, heavy lifting jobs relentlessly. And the playground is now a little bit closer to re-opening.

Well done everyone.

Continued great turnout to ensure the adventure playground is at the top of its game come its reopening.

Goodgymers came from far and wide to toil across the playground, reassembling goals, painting benches and containers and building gentle slopes out of soil.

A good day's work in the afternoon sun!

A whole bunch of wonderful GoodGymers turned up to help Alex and Nadia with the task of getting the playground ready for its grand reopening in a few weeks time.

Play areas were swept, cleaned and power washed, terrorising beasts were painted and brought back to life, the vegetable garden was tended to and growing pyramids created from bamboo, the shed was painted, and vast trees/bushes and parts of the garden was weeded. All done with lots of style and vigour.

Alex joked that he won’t need us for a while. I think we’ll be going back every week for a while, which is good news because it’s always such a pleasure to help out there.

Paula even stayed later to play ping pong.

Once again, Alex and Nadia at Weavers playground had a variety of tasks ready for us, all printed on a board.

Dharmesh and James arrived from the far North (Redbridge) and worked with John to clear a cluttered room of virtually everything, then bagged up some heavy floor tiles. Together with Eimear, they also constructed a table tennis table (is that really what it’s called?). Eimear had already put together a wooden patio (if that’s what it’s called).

Meanwhile, Hester was painting some animals (stone animals) while the others were on the football pitch, sweeping and shovelling away debris, and using a bendy pipe (that’s definitely what it’s called) to jet-wash the astroturf and nicely clean the yellow lines.

Emma and Srta also took the chance to brush up on their hula-hooping skills, before heading off to a café with me for lunch.

On a beautiful Saturday morning, four GoodGymers returned to one of our favourite tasks - helping Alex and Nadia (both pictured) at Weavers Adventure Playground.

Aine and Joanne set to work weeding, digging up lavender plants and re-planting them in planters - with feet planted firmly on the ground.

John and Eva's time passed quickly as they painted the shed, chatted and started planning the Tower Hamlets GoodGym Games. By the time they'd finished splashing the green paint around, they resembled the Incredible Hulk - but only in skin tone.

After most of us had finished, Aine and Eva showed they'd retained some of the basketball skills picked up as teenagers.

Eventually, someone managed to drag Joanne away from her watering can.