Another glorious Sunday morning and another fab day for junior parkrun — this time with sunshine turned all the way up and smiles to match.

Despite a late sign-up, one determined GoodGymer made it in time to pull on the hi-vis and join the volunteer crew as one of this morning’s marshals. Proof that sometimes all you need is a bit of urgency and a sunny start.

As today’s Race Director Sheralee reminded us, junior parkrun only works because of volunteers — and the best part? No experience required. Just a willingness to cheer, clap, high five and help make Sunday mornings happen. Everyone is welcome.

Today was another reminder that junior parkrun is more than just a run. It’s family time, community time, sunshine time… and definitely high-five time.

From first-timers to regulars, all 29 finishers earned those cheers around the course and crossed the finish line with extra sunshine-powered energy. A special welcome to the 3 first timer junior parkrunners, and huge congratulations to the 8 runners who achieved new PBs.

Another family day called junior parkrun day. Today… in the sun.

• With photo credit to the Hornfair Junior parkrun Facebook page for one of today’s sunny snaps

Till next one…

Cecilia D

Eight GoodGymers headed to beautiful Morden College, a residential home for older people, last night for an evening task that quickly became one of our favourites yet.

Meeting at Charlton House our ice breaker question was: 'If money were no object, where would you retire?' Answers ranged from Australia, Miami, Tenerife and London...and by the end of the evening, several of us had of course changed our answers to Morden College 😎

Special welcome to the crew to Mark on your first good deed with us - lovely to meet you and hope to see you back again soon!

After a 3km run, Meryl and Zoe from Morden College welcomed us warmly as we got stuck into sweeping the pathway and pruning the hedges outside the grounds. Lots of passers-by stopped to thank us while we worked, always a lovely reminder of how much these small acts matter. A section of the pathway is now looking much clearer and we'll be back to continue the job!

After the task, things got even better. Barry very kindly opened the bar specially for us, and we enjoyed a couple of rounds chatting away in the garden as the sun went down. Absolute bliss.

We’d love to come back soon to this haven in blackheath to continue along the pathway and maybe even help out in the beautiful gardens themselves, building planters for the veggies!

Next week we're gardening at St Alfege's School in Greenwich.

This bank holiday weekend, we've got:

• Volunteering at Parkrun and Junior Parkrun

• Gardening at Mycenae

• Weeding at Hervey Road

Until next time, wonderful people!

A sunny Sunday saw Good Gym turn up at Charlton House to help set up the annual plant sale run by Charlton and Blackheath amateur horticultural society (CABAHS). The sale is a popular event and raises money for outdoor projects.

The volunteers were very excited to see the 'muscle' turn up, and 4 of us got down to business ably "assisted" by Caspar the cat. Tables and chairs needed to be assembled, but most of what was needed was moving hundreds of plants from their storage area behind the Old Pond garden to the peace garden where the sale was taking place, We were a super-efficient delivery line and before we knew it all the plants had been moved and the tables were all set up, well ahead of the planned start time of 11.00.

This was a lovely task and Good Gym really helped with getting things ready on time. And no doubt the sale would have been an incredible success.

After a week of Water (loo) falling from the sky, we were grateful for a calm, dry day today, when Love Shined a Light on 5 goodgym-ers, meeting the Friends of Charlton Pet Cemetery for a multitude of tasks. Eins...Zwei...Drei...Go 🎵

One Step In rather than Out of Time, one group used scaper tools to clean the borders between the paving slabs, while others followed, sweeping away lots of dust & general debris. The high-powered hedge trimmer singing its Lonely Synphony created swathes of foliage for us to clear away too, giving Edward Scissorhands a run for his money!

Our final task involved cleaning the stones set into the pathways, commemorating the much loved and missed 4-legged friends remembered in the Cemetery. The impact was immediately noticeable, making the inscriptions much clearer after a good scrub and hose down. A reminder that You're Not Alone.

Photo time, and time for us Children of the Universe to move on, after a great community mission. In hectic weekend of cup finals & song contests, it's Just a Little Bit refreshing to be involved with tasks like these. Thank you all until next time! 😊

Charlton Community Gardens had had a surprise gift of a bag of compost and a bag of bark. Trouble was that the regular volunteers weren't able to move them.

So up stepped Good Gym. In a trice we'd moved the bags to a more useful location and set about spreading the bark onto bare patches of the garden. A small amount of the compost was also used to fill some gaps in some raised beds. Soon we were done and all that remained to do was to pick some lettuce for our lunches at the behest of the organiser.

Last night brought us to Plumstead, some of us running by the river, others walking and meeting us at the location for our glamorous task of litter picking a particularly grotty spot. Good deeds definitely earned for this one! Thankfully the rain held off and we busily collected a whopping 28 bags of bottles, wrappers, and oddly some hair? It's surely Incredibles what 11 commited GoodGymers can achieve in a short space of time - great work everyone.

A huge welcome back to Kevin, who has already smashed FOUR tasks since joining last week 👏 and big cheers to Hope on your second GGG group run, great to have you with us again!

This weekend we've got lots going on:

Saturday 16th

• Flyering for MumsAid at Peninsula Parkrun: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/distribute-flyers-for-mumsaid-at-greenwich-peninsula-parkrun

• Gardening at Oxleas Woods: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/gardening-at-oxleas-woods

• Cleaning up at the pet cemetery: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/clean-up-at-the-old-blue-cross-pet-cemetery-e6d263c5-2c11-43fa-8e77-c9efd3ea628d

Sunday 17th

• Helping at the Charlton plant sale: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/helping-at-the-cabahs-plant-sale-e6216869-db5c-4f0f-870d-836747fe587f

• Gardening at Hervey road: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/gardening-at-hervey-road-community-garden

Next week

Tuesday

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/moving-furniture-and-cleaning-at-the-wsup

Wednesday

Sweeping at Morden College and social 🍻: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/sweeping-by-morden-college-and-social

Until next time!

Rachel