A great team showed their commitment to the January Challenge with another fun Tuesday evening at the YMCA's Hawker Centre.

It never feels like a chore cleaning the soft play area and Emma, Claire, Levita, Tom, Dave, Emily, Anna, Rachel, Luke, Farzeen, Jonathan, Sabir, Marcus, Laurel all got stuck in wiping down chairs, tables, surfaces and the sensory area with a lifetime's supply of disinfectant products.

MVP award to Luke, who even managed to clean the whole of the big slide without making (much of) a spectacle of himself.

The reward for it all is getting to be a big kid and climbing on the equipment ourselves afterwards. Lovely to be out and about, doing good and clocking up those points and kilometres.

We had one hour at Staywell Raleigh House Day Centre to give the garden and patio areas a much-needed tidy, and we packed a lot in despite the weather doing its very best to slow us down. The team got straight to work clearing dead plants from the planting troughs, pulling out tired greenery and making the space ready for new life. Jana and Farzeen focused on weeding and clearing the planters, while Sabir swept, cleared and weeded the patio area, leaving it looking far fresher and safer underfoot. Emily took on the glass cleaning near the patio, and the amount of green gunk that came off was deeply satisfying to witness. The side entrance planting also got some attention, with dead plants removed to smarten up the approach. Halfway through the task, the heavens well and truly opened, leaving us completely soaked — but spirits stayed high and smiles stayed firmly in place as we powered through to the finish. We were very grateful for the sweet treats kindly left out by the Staywell staff, which provided a much-needed morale boost at the end of a thoroughly productive hour. A brilliant team effort, a visibly improved space, and a reminder of just how much can be achieved when everyone mucks in together. 💚

A team of 7 GoodGymers spent the morning at Canbury Community Garden. The winter sun was out in full force, we powered through our the list of tasks with plenty of banter and laughter. The hay! We did a spot of wedding in one of the garden beds and reapplied a protective blanket of hay. Rot and roll! We got stuck into the 3 compost heaps, giving that worm rich black gold a good tumble, ready for the spring planting. We made a splash! We cleared out the winter debris in the pond, and working those muscles using the water rollers we refilled the pond with river water. Looking fresh! Snip snap! Secateurs in hand, we gave the thorns along the fence a much-needed tidy-up to make room for gorgeous spring growth. 📢 and today, we welcomed a new GoodGymer during our sun-soaked mission! Nothing beats the feeling of a productive dig in the fresh air!

We returned to Full Cycle this evening for our group run to power through the remaining tasks on our to-do list - we have our own whiteboard of jobs these days! Of course, the team shifted into gear and wasted no time getting stuck into the usual recycling jobs: sorting cardboard, inner tubes, and tyres for collection.

Then some of us tackled the mountain of wheels, separating tyres from rims and reorganising the storage space to ensure we were using every bit of space efficiently, leaving things spoke and span.

It was a high-energy session of lifting, sorting, and shifting. Some areas of the workshop look some what transformed, so it was another productive night in the bag for GoodGym Kingston. Wheely well done team!

This afternoon, we were kept busy completing various tasks at The Hive. Firstly we cleaned a cupboard in The Honeypot of items, to go to other charities, which was then cleaned.

Next jobs, we split up into 2 teams. Rachel and Charlotte cleaned and tidied The Hive while myself and Sabir painted over the graffiti in the disabled toilet. After a welcomed cup of tea signs were put up on the door of The Hive.

Tonight was one of our biggest turn-out mission this month where 13 Goodgymers helped KVA’s (Kingston Voluntary Action) Surplus Hub with their task list. Immediately, the team busied themselves by splitting into two groups. The first group moved all the crates from the van to inside the hub, unpacked them, sorted out donations and put them into the appropriate crates so that these can be packed away in the storeroom.

The second group swept, mopped, cleaned and tidied up the two kitchen areas to make it more accessible for KVA’s volunteer team and clean from any future pests.

Welcome Laura, on your first task!

A big January Challenge squad was out on a chilly night as we headed back to the British Heart Foundation shop for some more window dressing. Emily, Clare, Dave, Anna, Luke, Susannah, Jonathan, Eleanor, Amy, Laurel, Tom, Marcos and Rachel were quickly called into action by fetching sporting and gym items from the cavernous storage areas upstairs to hopefully encourage buyers to start thinking about fitness and exercise.

We got there in the end, with particular aesthetic guidance from Susannah and a final inspirational touch from Marcos to hang badminton racquets from the ceiling.

It's always a really fun task with the BHF and this was no different. A bit cold for too much running, but extra kudos to those who did.