Alice
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Doing good since November 2018
6 Month Streak
Latest activity
Alice signed up to a group run.
Mon 31st Oct 2022 at 6:45pm
Joining the lovely resident gardeners at Thornhill Square Gardens for an evening of composting, watering and maintenance
Read moreAlice went on a group run
Mon 24th Oct 2022 at 6:45pm
Islington Report written by Simon Fitzmaurice
In between sporadic rain showers, Area Activator Simon caught up with a top crew of Goodgymmers (a mix of regulars and new starters- welcome Michelle!) outside the Arsenal Community Hub for our weekly group run. After a count-off to introduce each other (and to show off our favourite firework sounds to celebrate Diwali!), we ran approximately 1 mile together towards Elizabeth House Food Hub on Hurlock Street (utilising some hills on route!).
Upon our arrival, we found that Ernestas, Natalie and Natasha were already helping the super busy food bank crew with their half term operations. Elizabeth House Food Hub has been set up to act like a supermarket of donated produce that can be affordably purchased by the immediate community. During the holidays, more families and individuals require additional assistance with deliveries, so Goodgym Islington were asked whether would lend a hand. Half of our runners paired up together to deliver these essential parcels to households across the borough. The rest of our team assisted with cleaning and closing up the tables used for the food bank, and with loading any additional produce back into the kitchen (after some quality control). We finished off the evening with some recycling, and breaking down food boxes for collection.
The Elizabeth House Food Hub core yeam were absolutely thrilled with the amount of work completed within such a short amount of time, and asked is to definitely return in the future! Well done all!
Our final event of the night was the introduction of our monthly "Emirates Stadium Time Trial"- a personal test run with your fellow Goodgymmers to see how quickly we can run the 700m loop of the Emirates Concourse. It was so great to bring back this "Paul Bown" tradition to Goodgym Islington again.
NEWS
Highbury Quadrant Soil Shifting
On Wednesday 26th November, Area Activator Simon and Ernestas of Highbury Ward will be helping Octopus Community Network with filling up some newly constructed flower planters around the Highbury Quadrant Estate.
Sign up here to get involved:
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/highbury-quadrant-bonus-shingle-and-soil-shifting
VI Guide Running at Emirates Stadium with Achilles International
Every Thursday, Achilles International will lead a group run for visually impaired runners and local guides at Paddington Rec Track or The Emirates Stadium. This week, we will be returning to North London for our session. Open to potential guide of all abilities, and for anyone up for a group run!
Halloween Hampstead Heath Headtorch Group Run
On Friday 28th November, AA Simon will be leading his annual Halloween headtorch run around Hampstead Heath- starting at the Bull and Gate Pub in Kentish Town, and looping around the gorgeous trails of North London. Costumes and trail shoes are advised, but not essential! Social group running pace will be the aim for the evening- please bring your own headtorch if possible.
Caledonian Park Junior parkrun Half Term Holiday Help
On Sunday 30th November, the lovely event directors of junior parkrun in Caledonian Park have asked if any of our Goodgym crew would be available to help with course marshalling, time keeping, tail walking or barcode scanning for their free weekly timed run for 4-14 year old runners. Volunteer numbers from parents and usual assistants tend to be down due to the half term break, so any help would be awesome!
Penn Road Gardens Volunteer Open Morning
After Junior parkrun, the resident volunteers of Penn Road Gardens will be hosting their monthly open morning for composting, mulching and garden maintenance near Holloway Road. A wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning with a potential Goodgym double task!
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/penn-road-gardens-open-morning-october
Alice went on a group run
Mon 26th Sep 2022 at 6:45pm
Islington Report written by Simon Fitzmaurice
As dusk descended onto The Emirates Stadium on Monday evening (headtorch season has begun!), Area Activator Simon met with Sarah, Charlie and Kim outside The Arsenal Community Hub, ready for our weekly group run. During our warm up, our crew mentioned that they were very excited about the London Marathon this weekend (and inspired by Eliud Kipchoge's exceptional run at Berlin on Sunday), while others had plans to go on a bat walk, and to visit London Zoo!
Out task had been scheduled for a 1.2 mile run up to the gorgeous Caledonian Park, following Mackenzie Road north from the stadium. A sprinkle of rain in the previous hour allowed us to run interrupted on quiet pavements!
As we turned the corner on Shearing Way and into the park, we were greeted to a beautiful sight of the famous Caledonian Park Clocktower lit up in the dark, and our two cycling Goodgymmers Alice and Natalie. Cally Park volunteer coordinator Miriam exited her choir practice to lead our team to four wheel barrows packed with hoes, rakes, spades and leaf grabbers, and lead us over to the gorgeous woodland trail area of the park.
Outside of her usual park maintenance projects, Miriam also helps as an event director for Caledonian Park junior parkrun- a 2km free weekly timed running event for children aged 4-14 years old every Sunday at 9am (always looking for new volunteers if you would like to get involved: https://www.parkrun.org.uk/caledonian-juniors/). During the run last Sunday, the marshal team noticed that quite a bit of mud and green foliage had washed over the paths through the wooded corridor, and had made the surface quite slippery under foot. Our objective this evening was to push as much of the mud off the pathway as possible to keep it safe for local visitors.
Within 40 minutes of pushing, scraping, digging and shifted, our team of 6 successfully cleared all of the pavement from the top of the park, all the way down to the Market Road basketball courts - the whole of "birdcage walk"- aptly named due to the bird feeders and water bowls positioned for avian neighbours to enjoy!
We trundled our equipment back to The Tollington Café, and posed for a necessary clocktower-at-night photo together before heading off on our separate ways, with 4 of us running the return trip to the Emirates. Congratulations folks- great stuff!
Upcoming News in Islington
Achilles International VI Guide Running sessions- Now at Arsenal station!
On Thursday 29th September, we will be hosting our first visually impaired guide running session at the Emirates Stadium.
Typically, these runs occur at Green Park and Paddington Rec Track on alternate weeks, but we have opened up the concourse of the Emirates as a new floodlit option during the Winter months.
Starting at 6pm at Arsenal tube station, runners and guide runners of all abilities are welcome. Find out more here!
Mildmay Community Centre Garden Maintenance Evening Session
On Friday evening (30th September), Area Activator Simon will be joining the resident gardener of Mildmay Community Centre in Newington Green for an evening of green fingered Autumnal maintenance.
We will have lights and gloves available for all. A lovely way to top off the week, at Islington's most impressive community carbon neutral Passiv Haus!
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/mildmay-community-centre-gardening-workout
OCTOBER SOCIAL- Warming Soup and Noodles at Áu Laç Vietnamese Cuisine, Highbury Hill
After our group run to Market Road Gardens on Monday 10th October, we will be visiting the amazing Áu Laç restaurant on Highbury Hill for delicious Vietnamese food and refreshments.
Sign up here to get involved:
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/october-social-post-run-noodles-and-soups-at-au-l-c
Alice signed up to a group run.
Mon 26th Sep 2022 at 6:45pm
The Friends of Caledonian Park have requested our help with maintaining their desire path!
Read moreAlice went on a group run
Mon 4th Jul 2022 at 6:45pm
Islington Report written by Simon Fitzmaurice
Goodgym Islington regulars Rain and Annikki met Area Activators Simon and Sam outside the Arsenal Community Hub on Benwell Road on a warm Monday evening, ready for our group run to the lovely ARC community centre in Angel. We all engaged in a dynamic warm up using the Emirates Stadium slopes, and then set off on our 1.8 mile run across the Islington borough (passing task locations like Canonbury Square Gardens and Compton Square Gardens on route).
We met up with the rest of our team outside the ARC Centre upon our arrival, and met with Damien (and a beautiful black 18 month old pointer dog called Rollo) for an introduction to our evening of gardening. Our plan was to visit the Packington Playground and Canalside gardens opposite the ARC centre, two of the main locations for some of the 4000 donated plants, bushes and trees from the 2022 Chelsea Flower Show, and to water as much of the greenery as possible before the upcoming heatwave.
New starter Halle (welcome!), Caitlin, Alison, Charlotte and Helen took the lead with watering the flower beds surrounding the local parks by filling up watering cans and butts and making sure that all of the terrain was as soaked as possible. Rain and Sam took control of a sprinkler system and a long hosepipe to drench the ground as best we could over the course of the hour. Meanwhile, Nurjehan, Annikki, Rachel and Alice engaged in some litter picking between the two parks, as loads of rubbish had found itself strewn across the two community projects. The team had filled multiple bags of refuse in such a short amount of time- great stuff!
We regrouped after approx 45 minutes of much appreciated help, and we all set off in our own separate ways after a group photo. Smashing task everyone, well done!
Goodgym Summer Social Rounders Tournament- North vs South!
Our summer rounders session (set up by Area Activator Sam from Southwark- check out their Wednesday night group runs if you are ever in Peckham!) will be hosted in Victoria Park on Saturday 16th July (4pm onwards). Friendly park and picnic fun, open for Goodgymmers and non-Goodgymmers alike.
Click the following link for more info:
Hide comments (1)
Tue 5th Jul 2022 at 8:45am
Thanks Simon for the lovely and steady group run. Wouldn't have known such a nice neighbourhood existed in London and thanks for the promo :)
Alice signed up to a group run.
Mon 4th Jul 2022 at 6:45pm
Helping The Arc Community Centre in Angel with their ambitious planting project!
Read moreAlice signed up to a group run.
Mon 27th Jun 2022 at 6:45pm
Visiting this amazing city farm in Paradise Park, lending a hand with overall maintenance!
Read more
Alice went on a group run
Mon 20th Jun 2022 at 6:45pm
Islington Report written by Simon Fitzmaurice
On a glorious Monday evening (sun hat weather, especially for those with fair skin!), Area Activator Simon and Josh met up at The Arsenal Community Hub on Benwell Road, for the first time in 2 years. It feels so good to be back to our old group run meeting place, though we will be ever grateful for Elizabeth House Food Hub for letting us use their facilities over the last 6 months. We had a chat about our busy trips (Josh had visited Croatia recently, and Simon had run across Hadrian's Wall), before performing some warm ups up and down the access slopes to the Emirates Stadium. From here, we ran about 2km up to Hilldrop Crescent via Camden Road to arrive at St Mungo's.
St Mungo's Hilldrop House is a hub for those experiencing homelessness and accomodation issues in the Islington borough. The team had asked if GG Islington would be open to giving their residential gardens and entrance some TLC after the greenery started to get overgrown in the hot weather. Josh and Simon got stuck in with snipping branches and bushes to clear the main pathway to the entrance doorway, before being joined by Alice, Patrick and Emily, who had just arrived after completing another task in Camden (TRAID charity shop sorting). The rest of our crew lent a hand with chopping down some brambles surrounding the gardens, and by pulling away some vines that were choking the trees.
Within 45 minutes of proper graft, we had successfully filled 10 bags of green waste from the garden space and had made a real difference to the appearance of the entrance way. This is certainly a larger task, and we will definitely return soon to help out as best we can!
NEWS
Freightliner's Farm Fun
Next Monday, we will be returning to one of our favourite all time tasks, Freightliner's Farm in Paradise Park. First time back after lockdown! Come and visit some adorable animals, and help with the running of this community farm.
Monday 27th June, 6.45pm from Arsenal Community Hub, Benwell Road.
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/group-run-freightliner-s-farm-fun
June Social - The Victoria, Holloway Road
After our group run next Monday, we will also be popping over to the lovely Victoria Tavern on Holloway Road for one of their famous pizzas, and a few refreshments.
8.45pm onwards.
Track Attack June- Victoria Park Time Trial
On Sunday 26th June, Area Activator Simon will be hosting our monthly 1 mile and 5km time trial on Victoria Park track (starting at 11am).
Runners of all abilities welcome and encouraged for a non-competitive, social run. Always followed by coffee and breakfast at the Park Café.
https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/track-attack-june-2022-victoria-park
Alice signed up to a group run.
Mon 20th Jun 2022 at 6:45pm
Since this residential centre for homeless care re-opened after lockdown, their gardens are in need of some renovations for the clients well-being
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