Wednesday 10th July
Report written by Sam Lefevre (he/him)
Is it coming home (it did for the Women's back in 2022)? That was the thought on everyone's mind as England's Mens team had their Semi-final game against Netherlands on the same night as our group run. Yet, 13 GoodGymers opted in for doing a good deed before the game. Sam messaged the task owner to bring the task forward and asked those who signed up to come between 18:30 - 18:40 to Old Spike Peckham, so that they could fit everything in within an hour and a half.
Tonight, we had not one, but two newbies. Well, technically, Audrey is not a newbie, but new to coming to GoodGym Southwark. However, we welcomed Hannah who came for her first good deed! Welcome!
Andrada, Cecilia, Daryl, David, Maria, Nelly, Paulin and Rosalind all came along on time as Sam started his extended speech due to the newbie and then presented his ice-breaker question. Tonight's ice-breaker was about the Euros, so he asked: "Who will win the tournament?"
Most said it would come home, but a few Spain and one Netherlands vote...
Kick off...
We headed out without a warm-up as Sam knew he had to get to the task within 18 minutes. Paulin backmarked to ensure no one got left behind as we climbed up Chadwick Road to come down the other side to Camberwell. We made it in time to meet Zulieka and her girls as Emma arrived with her bike.
Zulieka had three tasks for us to do. We left Daryl, David and Andrada with a pile of woodchip, a wheelbarrow and a tonne bag in a shopping trolley to move to a site where woodchip needed to be laid. As we went around the estate, Adrian and Audrey with two pairs of shears were given the task to cut back a tree/bush in order for the residents to get to a watering unit as the hot summer days are a head of us and plants would need to be watered. The rest of the group went around the corner to weed a garden bed that was temporarily taken care of by the council, but they didn't finish the job. Using hand tools and shears, Cecilia, Emma, Hannah, Maria, Nelly, Paulin and Rosalind took of the task of transforming this space within 25 minutes.
Running around to ensure all groups were fine, Sam counted the clock down as there was a hard stop at 19:30 to ensure the team could run back in time to see the start of the game. However, Zulieka wanted help to take back the tools and two wooden pallets she found on the estate, so we duly did so before rushing off back towards Peckham. The boys probably clocked a few PBs as they sprinted the 3k run back to Old Spike as we had a table booked in 80-20 wines next door. Everyone arrived just in time for the kick-off...
Thank You to all the GG-ers
A personal thanks from me to all those who came out last night. A very quick session due to the football, but we did get a lot done in the 30 minutes that we were there for. Zulieka sends her thanks and looks forward to see us next month. Kudos to all and if I don't see you next week, see you soon!
Members and volunteers of Elmington Estate have setup a community garden at the The Wildlife Triangle on Brisbane Street to transform this lawn into a wildlife garden.
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