..when Goodgym Waltham Forest are on hand?! Four happy Goodgymmers walked, cycled and ran to the Walthamstow Toy Library this evening to help the ever-wonderful Helen organise the walk-in craft cupboard. The Toy Library provides craft workshops and activities for visiting children and receives donations of all kinds of lovely creative supplies. From paints, pom poms and playdough to stickers and stencils, pipe cleaners and pencils, glitter and glue, you name it – the Toy Library has it. In fact, the cupboard was so full it was ready to burst!

Two hours of sifting and sorting, consolidating and amalgamating, packing, labelling and shelf-stacking, and the cupboard was, even if we do say so ourselves, unrecognisable! An organisational miracle to behold! Space was saved, clarity was achieved and Helen was beyond delighted. In fact, after all had left and she and I were turning lights out and getting ready to lock up and go home, she turned the light back on, looked at me slightly sheepishly and said, “sorry, but I’ve just got to go and have another look at it!”.

Well done GGWF – we did a good thing this evening. Special welcome and congratulations to Vicky on her first mission – it was super to have you on board.

A shining light was extinguished today for Goodgym Waltham Forest as we learnt of the sudden passing of Raymond Umunna, dear friend, Goodgym stalwart and excellent human being. Ray (with Julia) was the first Goodgymmer I met when I joined GGWF on arrival in London late in 2021 and he’s been at many of the tasks I’ve participated in since. We quickly developed a rapport of gentle teasing; he ribbed me for working too hard, I feigned complaint that he wasn’t pulling his weight. We shared a love of the trampolines at Cheney Row park, detouring a social run there one evening for a quick bounce. And a mere two days ago I enticed him to sign up for this evening’s task at Walthamstow Toy Library with a promise of mince pies. When I read the message today I simply couldn’t comprehend it. I went to the Toy Library numb and in shock yet in part somehow still expecting Ray to be there, smiling broadly and telling me there had been a mistake.

As always, the Toy Library continues to do wonderful and much-needed work, which is especially important at this time of year, providing a huge range of toys and play facilities for families in need, in a low-cost, ethical and sustainable way. This evening, new GGWF member Anna, her friend Eliza and I helped Helen, who runs the Library, to clean the toy store room and organise the many shelves and boxes. As usual, we made short work of the task and Helen was, as ever, hugely grateful. I of course worked hard (but not too hard!) for Ray, and tried to make sure that Anna and Eliza felt as welcome and appreciated as he would have made them feel.

While I’m not lucky enough to have known Ray as well as many GGWF friends did, he made me feel instantly welcome here and I will be forever grateful. He treated me like a friend whenever our paths crossed. His warmth, energy and enthusiasm lit up every task we did, with his trademark enormous smile to rival that of the Cheshire Cat. I know that Ray has very close friends at GGWF, who are reeling today, trying to make sense of this unfathomable loss. To them I send love and strength. When the place and time are right, I know that together we will find a way to pay a fitting and lasting tribute to him. For now, I sign off this final “run report” for 2024 with words I couldn’t have imagined writing a few hours ago: Thank you, Ray, for everything you gave. I know you will be greatly missed by many. I, for one, am struggling to imagine Goodgym without you. May you rest in peace, dear friend.

Four jolly Goodgymmers (and a bump – extra well done to heavily pregnant Charlotte for joining the task!) made their way this frosty evening to Walthamstow Toy Library for some festive fun, to wrap presents for Santa, who is apparently scheduled to visit quite soon, although we’ve no idea why as it can’t possibly be almost December already?! We were greeted by the ever lovely and brilliant Helen, who runs the Toy Library and supplied us with everything we needed to wrap lots of lovely books. We wrapped and chatted happily, good company making light work of the task! The Toy Library is always a joy and it was lovely to be back and once again able to support this incredible project, which has been part of the Walthamstow community for almost 50 years!

It finally time for some warmer outdoor sessions and Wednesday was the perfect day for it!

We have been working with Walthamstow Toy Library for a while and have completed many an indoor task but this week we had the pleasure of completing some weed trimming and seed scattering around the grounds.

As usual, we arrived to a warm welcome from Helen who provided us with a range of tools and gloves to get to work on the overgrown bushes pushing through the fence. We made quick work of trimming this down to manageable lengths before moving onto the weeds lining the pavement.

In between tugs of weeds, we came across seed bombs encased in clay that had failed to dissolve in the soil. Between Ramon's recommended foot twisting mechanism and a few whacks with the tail ends of our tools, we were able to break them apart and redistribute them along the soil beds and will hopefully be singing some wildflowers sprouting soon.

3 plastic bins filled to the brim with weeds and some very good conversation later, we could stand back and admire the fruits of our (relatively) intense labour.

Our task was made considerably more entertaining by some of the unbelievable Alpaca facts dropped by Sarah, so if you are looking to learn some wildlife facts while spending some time in the great outdoors, be sure to look out for our next task!