It was a festive-feeling evening as we jogged over to Plaistow Primary, where Rosie – deputy head and top Newham GoodGymmer – had a stack of books waiting for us to turn into presents.

On the run over we caught up with Eugene, back from Morocco and full of stories (and presumably tagine). Once inside, we settled into a rhythm of fold–tape–repeat, with plenty of interesting chat including a deep dive into unusual world champions. My favourite has to be Rock–Paper–Scissors world champion who, unbelievably, was prevented from defending their title due to an arm injury. The cruel fate of niche elite sport.

We wrapped a solid pile of books before our scheduled finishing time, but we were pleased to hear that the dinner ladies would be finishing the rest later in the week. Apparently they are clinically efficient in their execution of these sorts of tasks, so the presents are in very safe hands.

One last task for 2025 is lined up for next week at Hackney Marshes Adventure Playground, and then we’re onto lining up a whole load of sessions for January. Perfect timing to catch everyone with fresh New Year’s resolutions to get fit, do good, and support their local community.

Good wrapping, good running, good company. GoodGym. 🎁🏃‍♂️✨

A chilly evening, but the mission continued! After last week’s successful flyering, our GoodGym crew returned to the streets around Cody Dock with more flyers in hand. This time, we tackled a fresh set of houses, putting our “conveyor belt” technique to work once again for maximum efficiency.

As before, there were plenty of smiles, plenty of steps, and one clear outcome: even more neighbours are now in the know about the upcoming Frost Fair. Another perfect mix of community, movement, and chilly cheer!

A chilly evening with a clear purpose - our GoodGym crew took to the streets around Cody Dock & Canning Town to help spread the word about the upcoming Frost Fair. With flyers in hand, we honed the “conveyor-belt technique”, gliding down a row of houses with peak efficiency and only slightly chilly fingers.

There were plenty of smiles, plenty of steps, and one definite outcome: a whole lot more neighbours now know the Frost Fair is on its way. A perfect blend of movement, community, and cold-weather cheer!

You know that autumn's here (even if the thermometer is trying hard to convince you otherwise), when evening group tasks involve (a lot of) leaf sweeping, and so it was for Graham, Eugene, Hilary and I once we'd convened at Ange's place, aka the Hackney Adventure playground. Armed with brooms, rakes, spades and a bag big enough for a small family to shelter under, we quickly got to work clearing the basketball court/football pitch of leaves, branches and other deposits...

We'd like to say there was some method applied to how we went about the task, but that would be overstating things somewhat, although our biggest challenge was staying ahead of the gusts which blew inconsiderately and kept depositing more debris onto the playing surface just when we thought we were winning, but after 45 minutes of pretty vigorous sweeping, piling up and bagging, the court/pitch was once more ready for play, and it would've been rude if we hadn't given it a try out...suffice to say we're clearly better suited to sweeping than we are at hooping...