It was a hot run 🥵 from the Crook Log Leisure Centre tonight, but we arrived to cups of water awaiting us with team member Amanda! We also had the pleasure of meeting the resident ginger cat relaxing in the cool office!

We decided to help in the courtyard garden area by weeding the raised flowerbed, sweeping the paths and watering the plants and lawn 💦.

Resident Joe joined us in cutting back the mint 🍃 and Pamela with cutting the lavender to make fragrant bouquets.

Time went so quickly and the heat subsided into a lovely evening.

We are already looking forward to our next visit!

Wednesday saw us back at Hurst Community Centre, this time to collect litter from around the grounds.

First the car park. Armed with pickers, gloves, and bags we blitzed the rogue crisp packets, stray coffee cups, and cheeky cigarette butts lurking between cars.

Then the rubbish that had accumulated along the boundary walls around the lawn.

Since recce-ing this task the grass had become a thigh-high jungle, and we joked about needing a scythe to cut a pathway though. Still, we swish-swish-swished our way to the wall and started clearing up.

It wasn't long before we realised that sharp grass seeds had launched a stealthy assault on our feet - socks and shoes suddenly felt like they were lined with needles.

To a genuine cry of 'I'm a GoodGymer, get me put of here', we declared a tactical retreat.

Safely out of the grass we took a few minutes to sit down and pluck the spiky seeds from our footwear (and check for ticks).

After a final sweep of the car park to collect more sweet wrappers and rubbish from vacated bays, we headed home.

Prickly grass seeds aside, this was a task full of laughs, storytelling and impromptu trivia snacks. All part of the GoodGym fun.

Note to self: definitely no more wading through long grass on future tasks!

Tried to think of a litter‑picking pun to end this report, but they were all rubbish!

See you next time.

On a bright Wednesday evening, our brilliant bunch of GoodGymmers headed to Hook Lane Primary School for a hands-on task that combined clearing rubbish, working on the climbing frame, and laying whole lot of woodchipping.

First up, we tackled a pile of accumulated stuff — broken bits of guttering, piping, pipe insulation and other random debris -- ferrying it from next to the shed on the playing field to the official rubbish area. So much tidier!

Meanwhile, Robert lend a strong pair of hands — and a sharp eye for engineering and DIY — to help teacher Dan repair the climbing frame. It's slowly coming back to life for breaktime adventures.

Next came the main event: laying down woodchippings to transform the mud kitchen into a cleaner, safer, and more inviting space for the kids to play.

We shovelled, wheeled, and spread the chippings with impressive coordination — like a very outdoorsy conveyor belt.

By the end of the hour, the mud kitchen looked transformed and ready for all the mini chefs to do their thing 👩‍🍳👨‍🍳.

A big thanks to everyone who came out and made such a positive impact!

Great work team, let’s do it again soon! 💥

This was our first session at Hook Lane Primary School after they contacted us to ask for some help.

Our group runners (starting from Crook Log Leisure Centre in Welling, and Costa Coffee in Blackfen), along with those arriving directly, met at the school gates where teacher Dan gave us a warm welcome.

The task: put up bamboo screening around the perimeter fence of the school field.

After sawing through a few pesky branches that were in our way, we fell into a good rhythm working in pairs; unrolling the screening between us, then one person holding it with the other fixing it in place. Meanwhile another pair started on the next length.

Threading the cable ties through the canes was a tricky business but after a while we found the knack 👌.

We nearly came a cropper putting up one roll back-to-front, but eagle-eyed Dan spotted our rookie error just in time!

Along with Dan and his brother Sam, we covered a long stretch in our alloted hour.

After a photo opportunity at the fairytale castle, we headed home, some of us running and some walking 🏃🏻‍♀️🏃‍♂️🚶‍♀️🚶‍♂️.

It was great having Simon with us for his first GoodGym good deed 🥳.

The school has lots more tasks lined up for our future visits, so why not come along and help make good things happen!

Hope to see you next time.

Some of us arriving by bike and others doing a lovely run through the park from the leisure centre, we had a fun evening cutting back low-hanging branches and building new dead hedging at Holy Trinity Lamorbey Primary School.

It's so rewarding doing tasks like this, supporting organisations that find it hard to get the work done otherwise.

And who knew that creating hedges from sticks, branches and tree cuttings could be so addictive. We didn't want to go home!

We'll be back again in July. Meanwhile, next week we're heading to Hook Lane Primary School for the first time, to help spruce up their outdoor learning area. We've put in a request for more sunny weather, so come and join us.