Southwark News

• HEY TEAM thanks for welcoming me along to Southwark last night, and thank you LUCY for showing me the ropes!

• Next week 14th August is sadly her very LAST run, she would love to see as many of you there! We're running 6km overall to Bell House. Find out more and sign up here. And also giving Lucy a suitable send off after our run, next door at the very friendly BATCH BAR!

• The following week will be 7km overall run to Galleywall Nature Reserve for a bit more digging and clearing pathways to help local kids access the site. Find out more and sign up here.

Now lets get down to business

Last night we ran 2.5km overall to do some weeding and digging up potatoes at Cossall Estate gardens.

We were met by Victoria, one of only a few volunteers who tends to these gardens on Sundays, to help maintain this space so that the area can be enjoyed by anyone living locally or just passing by!

Shout out to Kate, Emily & Lawrence who came on her first ever group run tonight! We hope to see you again soon :)

The gardens were only small but there was plenty of growth amongst the nettles and weed activity, including plenty of small potatoes. We set to work in 2 groups: one group tackling the metre tall weeds within the potato bed in extremely quick speed!! so quick in fact I wasn't able take a before photo! The second group skillfully identified which were weeds and which in fact were raspberry plants, whilst braking down brambles and filling up 10 or so bags, being careful not to rip into any plastic or flesh! In 40 minutes we'd dramatically changed the shape of these flower beds, unearthed a few potatoes and even said hello to a tiny snail! We were thanked by Victoria who was thoroughly pleased with our efforts, managing to get through so much in such a short time! She also said we are welcome to make a return trip... hopefully we will visit again soon.

All that was left was a quick team workout featuring Mexican wave Press Ups & Squats, GoodGym style Wrestling, and a race from the floor with a photo finish!

Well done to Lawrence for leading his time to victory :)

Overall a great evenings work, see you next week team!

Ian G

Southwark News

• Lianne has been doing good since March 2015. She's been injured so we haven't seen her for a while but she's been busy nontheless because she just reached 100 good deeds! A massive achievement congratulations Lianne! Give her a cheer by clicking here.

• This Saturday 24th December we're having a Christmas Decorations Party. It's hosted by Helena, bring your craftiness! Sign up here.

• Which leads nicely onto the GoodGym Christmas party! It's on 1st December at the Old Library it'll be an absolute blast! Sign up here. Aaaaaannnd whether you're coming or not, weigh in on what we should fancy dress as - the theme is the first letter of your GoodGym area - vote in the poll before Friday here.

• A big hello and welcome to Rai-lee and Becca who joined us for the first time last night. They did a stellar job at the Tigers Clubhouse and nailed the run, particularly on the way back.

• Next week we're going to Galleywall Nature Reserve for some planting. All being well, half the group will go to present-wrap at the Giraffe House. Both runs are 6km. Sign up here.

That's enough of the business

Last night we gathered in the bitter cold, extremely grateful that the rain had passed long before our run. Phew! After a briefing we ventured outside for a warm-up featuring lots of bunny hops and a cameo from a passerby. Fully warmed up, off we went to go see Vernon at Tigers Clubhouse to do some painting and tidying. He had a list of tasks ready for us:

• Paint the damp patches in the bathroom

• Re-paint the blackboard

• Sweep and tidy the attic

• Empty, clean and re-organise the storeroom

• Clean the kitchen

We spent just over half an hour there and got everything done. The biggest feat was the storeroom which required super-speed cleaning, removing brackets from the wall (involving some sensible screwdrivering and some not-so-sensible yanking), and putting everything back in an orderly fashion. The kitchen was sparkly clean by the end (cleaning is suprisingly cathartic!) and the attic was in excellent shape. Stuart found his calling in the toilets and we were delighted to leave the clubhouse looking in such good nick. A great evening had by all!

The run back was a bit more direct and we killed it. After a stretch we headed next door to Batch (the third Wednesday of the month is social night) for a drink and some interesting conversations about non-gendered classrooms, micro-pigs that aren't really micropigs and polygamy.

Great work everyone, see you next week!

Lucy

Southwark News

• She's been doing good since May 2017, she's a prolific gatherer of wild garlic. Yes that's right, Girija reached her 50th good deed tonight! A huge congrats to Girija, looking forward to seeing her in her black tshirt soon!

• This Saturday 3rd November Anna has organised an amazing Community Mission to clear up Crisis at Christmas's warehouse in Bermondsey so that it's ready for use over Christmas. Crisis at Christmas provides shelter and services to people without a home over the Christmas period so we are delighted to be abe to support them. Find out more and sign up here.

• Next Thursday 8th November is the last monthly GoodGym Social of the year. Expect International Pun of the Month and Treasure Thursday (bring your race bling). This week it's in Bethnal Green, find out more here.

• Don't forget the GoodGym Christmas party is on 1st December and we're having a decorations making party on 24th November.

• Next week we're going back to Theatre Deli to do another coat on the floor - sign up here.

That's enough of the business

Last night was quite the adventure! Liz at Grove Park Allotments got stuck on a train so couldn't make it BUT lo and behold, there was a community mission happening in Herne Hill so off we set!

We arrived en masse to see what we could do. The Community Missioners had done most of the work already but there were still about 7 gazebos standing. After a quick briefing we set to work taking them down. We got it done so quickly! The Herne Hill Forum were surprised and delighted to have us there and said that they were able to go for pizza much earlier because of us. A good deed for sure!

Fa-boo-lous dress-up last night, super scary!

We helped the team pack away all the gazebos and tables and set off for the run home. We ended up running nearly 8km overall. An amazing job everyone considering it was advertised as a 3km run. We were a flashmob for good last night!

After we went next door to Batch for spooky cocktails (or just beer!).

Great work team, see you next week!

Lucy J

21 runners ran 8km to empty planters and do a general tidy up at Camberwell Subterranea

Southwark News

• We're doing a parkrun takeover! 8th September, Peckham Rye Parkrun. Bring your red (or black) tshirt and a smile. If you're interested in pacing sign up on the spreadsheet. Let us know you're coming here.

• Rutland Water, the penultimate of the Big Six this year is coming up. Sunday 16th September - there's a half marathon, a marathon and a marathon relay. Find out more here.

• A big woop to our new runners - Caitlin, Sarah, Natalie, Emma and Eleanor! Give them a cheer!

That's enough of the bee-sness

Bee-n and done it!

Last night a whopping 21 of us went Camberwell Subterranea (part of Bee Urban) to meet Nick. We split into two groups - one 'in a hurry' and one at 'party pace'. The 'in a hurry' group arrived first (because they're in a hurry!) and Nick put them to work. There were countless planters on the roof where the bees hives are that had shrivelled up in all the heat and needed bringing down. The good earth in them then needed spreading on the planters below by the bike workshop. We shifted at least 15 planters! Core blimey!

It was heavy work but we got all of them spread out on the fruit trees and such like. We also set about generally clearing up the area - sweeping leaves and moving rubbish. It was all fun and games - Theo found a mandrake!

Looking forward to seeing you next week when we're off to Galleywall Nature Reserve, it's a 7km total run. Sign up here.

Keep running happy!

Lucy

Twelve awesome GoodGym-ers came down to help the Camden Society!

Lucy was away this week so I stepped in to lead the Southwark group. We had FIVE new runners tonight which was absolutely fantastic - welcome to Alex, George, Lucinda, Mark and Sam!

After a quick intro at Old Spike talking about the three ways in which we do good and get fit with GoodGym (group runs, missions and coach runs) we headed off for our journey to Bermondsey!

It was meant to be 4km but my watched clocked 4.5km! We all stayed together but kept up a decent pace and apart from some traffic light fun trying to get across the road in Peckham it was nice and uneventful.

Arriving at the Riverside centre in Bermondsey we let ourselves into the carpark and found the tools that had been left for us under one of the vans (see pic)!

We then tried to work out where we were supposed to be working... As the report title suggest we're still not sure we got it right but we worked on the area we could best access and hope that it is the right one! It was a fantastic effort from everybody, we cleared way more than I thought we would and despite not having all the right tools you all made it work and we cleared a huge area and filled up all the bin bags we had with detritus and weeds and rubbish!

After everything was done and a group photo taken we headed off with George and James leaving us to head home. The route home went slightly 'igglepiggle' but we rescued it and got back to Old Spike fine. A quick stretch down, a huge round of applause for Deepak on his last GoodGym run before moving to Mumbai (GoodGym India anyone?) and then we all headed off home (or to the pub!).

Thanks for having me, it is always so much fun covering Southwark and sign up here for next week's run!

Cheers, Pritesh