GoodGym Wandsworth's goal is to be able to support our community in the best and most productive way possible, so when we had a last minute call from one of regular task owners asking for some urgent help, we were only too happy to switch up our planned task to lend a hand.

Hadas who runs Waste Not Want Not, a local charity which is dedicated to ensuring that perfectly edible and nutritious food does not become waste and instead is channelled for the benefit of our local community, is managing a big refurb of the site. The decorator is ready to come and give the place a facelift, but there were two massive spaces which needed clearing out before that can happen. That's where we come in!

After a short run down to the charity, we assessed the job in question. How to move two rooms full of equipment, food and stock into one room with limited space? Human chain, of course. Wasting no time, we got cracking shifting everything through the building and working out the best way to store it. Meanwhile, another group tackled the conundrum that is the WNWN shelves. After one false start where it turns out they were assembled upside down, they were soon successful.

After 40 minutes the place was emptied and ready for its new look. We'll be back soon to see how it's all changed!

Next we headed over to Banana Park for our fitness session, which involved one pack of cards, two teams and A LOT of power squats. There could only be one winner however, and with a final score of 11 versus 14 the victors were clear.

Next week we have a very exciting session as it is our 7th birthday. Please join us if you can for an evening of fun, mini tasks, orienteering, challenges and of course a post run social. It would be brilliant to celebrate GG Wandsworth past, present and future with you!

22 DMCS ran 5.8km to help Coram Fields collect up 58 bags of leaves!

Thank you for coming along to the GoodGym×DMCS Run - there was a massive 22 of us!

A bit about GoodGym, our mission is to help our communities with physical tasks and reduce loneliness through projects with older persons. There are three ways of doing good with us:

1. First way is a group run, which you went on last night. As a group we meet in 45 areas around the UK on a weekly basis, we run to local charity do something physical for 30 minutes and run back.
2. Missions - these are one off and happen with 2-4 people, the idea is to help older persons in their home with something like setting up a hospital bed, moving furniture or gardening.
3. Coach Running - this is where you go visit an old isolated person once a week to have a chat and keep them company.

Back to what we did last night, after a quick warm up we headed along the river for some park running before heading north to the Strand and passed the busy Holborn station.

After a steady 3k run we arrived at Coram Fields, a 7 acre space which provides activities and space for young people. We met the wonderful Operations Manager Heng who told us our task for the evening was to clear and collect as many leaves as possible. With over 40 trees on the plot there is always going to be lots to do at this time of year.

Splitting into teams of 2-3 people we spread out and covered as much area as possible. While one person swept up small and large piles of leaves and then another collected them in bin bags.

All the leaves!

Over the course of 30 minutes everyone worked really hard - collecting a huge 58 bags of leaves - that's over 11 hours work for one person - amazing!

After taking a group picture we headed south and downhill home, dodging commuters and racing through the parks.

Find out what your local GoodGym is on the website, your closest are Westminster on a Wednesday meeting at the New Balance Store on Oxford Street or Camden also meeting on Wednesdays near St Pancras.

PB out