Full of Christmas spirit 6 GoodGymers were up bright and early to help at the pop up Christmas shop for clients of the Kingston Pantry.

GoodGym split themselves between being personal shoppers (Anna, Petra & Julie) and restocking the shelves (Dave, Julie, Saber & Claire) with wonderful gifts including Lego, toiletry sets, cool boxes, dolls, remote control cars and even robotic snakes!

Personal shopping allowed us to meet the clients and take them around the different sections where they could select a set number of gifts. As the gifts were snapped up the shelves were quickly restocked by the team.

Meanwhile Claire put together gift packages of toys, books and clothes for some very young children being looked after by another charity this Christmas.

The Pantry's clients were delighted with their selections as it meant they could provide gifts for their families this Christmas.

This is always a favourite task — and with plenty of sign-ups, it’s clear why! We needed all hands on deck to blitz the Hawker Centre’s soft play area and get it sparkling clean for the local families who use it so much.

We split into three teams to tackle different areas:

• Claire’s team took on the mighty ball pit — emptying it out and reaching every nook and cranny to make sure it was dust - and plaster-free.

• Julie’s group rolled up their sleeves to clean chairs, tables, high chairs and the outer spaces, including the multi-sensory room.

• Emma’s crew scaled the soft play structure, climbing through tunnels and down slides to sanitise all the high-touch areas with anti-bac spray.

This is a much-loved community space — many of us at the task tonight have fond memories of bringing our own children here — so it felt extra special to give something back. Families and little ones will now be able to enjoy a cleaner, safer, and brighter environment to play in.

Supporting This Girl Can

Tonight’s task also shone a light on Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign — an inspiring initiative that encourages women to be active in ways that work for them, no matter their age, background or ability.

This year, This Girl Can is going bigger and bolder, and we’re proud that GoodGym is part of the movement. Together, we’re raising awareness and taking real steps towards making outdoor exercise safer and more welcoming for women.

We showed our support by writing empowering messages on a large banner, to champion the cause!

And of course… we had the run!

In true GoodGym spirit, our evening wouldn’t be complete without some running! We clocked up around 3km there and back to the Quaker Centre, enjoying some great company along the way.

A fantastic task, a great cause, and brilliant teamwork — GoodGym Kingston at its best!

On a bright Autumn morning we met at the Goodgym flowerbed to prepare it for winter. The first job was to find the flowerbed underneath all the leaves. Sabir got to work with the rake followed by Mark and created a massive pile of leaves whilst Emily, Sahil and Julie picked the leaves out of all the tricky places in between the plants. Once Claire arrived back from her trip up the gardens for rubbish bags we will filled them with the leaves and Julie was queen of the leaf castle as we tried to squash them into the bags.

It was then time to plant the rest of the bulbs that Claire had donated from her garden. It was tricky to find a spot without any bulbs already so it should look pretty in the Spring.

We left the flowerbed full of Autuumn colour with the Aster and Salvias still in full bloom and will return next year in the Spring. Welcome to Sahil on your first mission and we hope to see you again soon.