Seven of us made our way to an industrial estate in Mitcham on a dark and drizzly night. As ever, it was well worth it to help out the brilliant charity Critical Support. This time some of the team were sorting crates of bread, fruit and other food, while others carried out an amazing transformation to the upstairs room, categorising clothes donations, tidying and even hoovering. James was as appreciative as always and amazed by what we'd achieved in such a short time. We look forward to returning.

We had a fantastic turnout to help clean and organise the storage area at Merton's Community Fridge for tonight's group session. After a briefing, we emptied the entire room and then split up into 3 teams; 2 groups on labelling and sorting all the food and other items and then the other team tackled the deep cleaning. Everyone got stuck in and a lot was achieved - well done team!

A big welcome to Jo and congratulations on your first GoodGym task, we hope to see you again soon.

We celebrated a record-breaking turnout tonight with 16 GoodGymers helping at Critical Support for our last group session of the year.

With so many hands on deck, our efficiency actually outpaced our supplies. Not to be deterred, as the paper was getting low the team pivoted to wrapping smaller gifts to maximise the output, then using decorative tape to get creative and finish the job. The final result was a fantastic pile of presents ready to go.

Great work everyone, and welcome to Safiya, Kriziya , Roisin, and Lili - Congrats on completing your first task, we hope to see you again soon.

For tonight's group session we teamed up with the Merton Rotary Club and Faith in Action for the Santa sleigh collections. Starting with a small team at the meeting point we soon snowballed as more volunteers joined us along the route and there was snow stopping us once we got moving.

With the festive tunes blasting we were (rockin' around the Christmas tree) knocking on doors and shaking our buckets. It was heartwarming to see the excitement on the kids' faces as Santa passed by and the community was incredibly generous.

A massive well done to everyone who came out to help. Yule be glad to know you’ve definitely made the Nice List this year!

We will be back next week helping with more collections so why not sign up and join us: https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/helping-with-marshalling-the-santa-sleigh-and-collecting-for-charity-c8ab3799-3be4-4cc8-99bf-d431721eb9a5

For tonight's group session we got sew busy helping Little ARK in their new makers' space. It was a perfect night to be indoors, especially as the rain poured down outside!

We split the team across three different rooms, to diligently sift through boxes and bags of fabric and haberdashery. Not only did we sort, wrap, and fold the materials into colour groups, but we also got busy cutting fabrics in preparation for making essential draught excluders.

Making good progress in the alloted hour, we then headed out into the rain for the soggy return run/walk/cycle but will no doubt be back soon as there's plenty more to do. 

Well done team - we did sew good!