22 Camdenites ran between 5-7km to help C4WS and Sheltered Housing!

Well when we arrived yesterday, instead of find a quiet community centre, there was a hat exhibition going on! Was bizarre but quite brilliant. We did our introductions outside talking about the following news:

1. Welcome along to Sally and Alice whose first time it was last night! Thanks for coming :)
2. Join our facebook groups - there is one for GoodGym Camden and another called Unofficial Unofficial GoodGym Socialising which is a general GG group - come join :)
3. The American International Church (where we make the beds) are having their annual Service of Thanks on Saturday 24th March @12:30pm. We are all invited to come along to share the celebrations, and give them the opportunity to say Thank You for all our support this season.
4. GG Camden's birthday celebrations will be on Thursday 12th April at the Skip Garden - pizza, bake off and booze! Come along!

Okay onto what we actually did last night, splitting into two groups we got lots of GOOD done.

C4WS Report by Rosie:

It was the last time this season to go help the American International Church on Goodge Church which is part of C4WS, a Camden best homeless shelter. Each week from January to March we've made beds for the homeless there each week. Saving lots of time for the church volunteers and doing tons of good for our community.

Here is a our weekly rhyme on the bed making:

Wore Red

Turned Heads

Made beds

Rosy led

There was only 10 beds to make this week as the majority of the service users have been moved onto permanent housing - which is fantastic news! After quickly making the beds the group headed to Regents Park for a 5km loop.

Sheltered Housing Report by PB:

12 of us headed to help Sheltered Housing in Ashdown Crescent, Kentish Town to do some tidying up and gardening. We met Cathi who told us all about the housing projects great work - providing care and a sense of community from people aged 65 up.

Our tasks for the evening were as followed:

1. Steve, Zahava and Alice dug, planted 12 trees and composted an area.
2. Laura and Natasha filled up a wheelbarrow full of compost for one of the residents
3. The rest of the team swept, trimmed and cleared the entire garden

After a group picture and saying goodbye to Cathi we headed home and did some fun Camden File on the way home - practicing our arm technique and speed.

Next week we it's Biggest Task of the Year Part Two - Southbank Rooftop Turf Lifting - sign up here! We need 50 people PLEASE!

PB out.

31 GoodGymers ran between 5-8km to help Camden Society paint and C4WS make beds

Hey, hello, whatup - that was fun wasn't it! Brilliant night of great people, fun fitness and GOOD tasking. Welcome to newbies - Matt, Amy, Emily, Zahava and Imogen who joined us for the first time last night - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. There is a GoodGym Monthly Social next Thursday at the Square Pig in Holborn, come along it will be full of puns, fun and Pritesh...
2. Well done Beth Hoskins (who started at GG Camden and is basically one of ours) who was the first person ever to reach 500 Good Deeds in GoodGym, she was sent a letter by the Prime Minister and Huffington Post wrote a cool article about her

After an active warm up in the cold January air we split into our teams and got 'gooding'. Chris took a team of 10 to help C4WS at the American International Church make beds for the homeless, over January and March each year we send a team of 10 people weekly to help the shelter with this task - saving them lots of time and effort.

Camden Legend Sophie Hedges wrote a cool haiku about the task:

American Church

Bed for the night, basic right

Fold corners with care

We are going to have a different member each week do a haiku about the bed making - it's an incredibly important task but it's hard to write 10 normal reports on it. Chris' team made quick work of the beds and then ran up to Kentish Town to join us for a last minute cleaning job - smashing 8km overall!

Camden Society Report by PB:

A team of 20 ran to Kentish Town to go help Camden Society, it was 2.5km up there and everyone kept a good pace to our NEW TASK. The Camden Society runs services across London and Oxfordshire. With a reputation for creativity, innovation and enterprise they generate new opportunities for people with disabilities to achieve greater equality. All their services are person-centred, supporting people to develop their lives in whatever ways they choose.

This fantastic charity have 10 sites across London, including 8 cafes, their Head Office and a site which sends out our GoodGym t-shirts! These are all run and serviced by people with learning difficulties - amazing!

Steve is actually an artist

Our tasks for the evening were as follows:

• John and Laurence cleaned the shop windows; front, back and around
• A team of 5 cleaned and scrubbed the walls, doors and services on the downstairs kitchen
• A team of 4 sanded and painted the hallway
• A team of 3 sanded and painted and disabled toilet

Amazing work all! We stayed for 45 minutes and got tons done. Now joined by Team Chris we ate some flapjacks, took a group pic and headed home for a stretch.

Sign up here for next week, three tasks - Abbey, St Mary's & C4WS!

PB out