Eight GGers were tasked with providing a litter bit of help on Petersham Common on a somewhat chilly summer evening.
Both Jade and Sam were led by Adam from the Taps Tavern and ran to the task with Chris cycling on ahead.
We met the the task owner Ken who supplied us with the trusty litter pickers and bags and were soon joined by Monika, Lucy and Sam.
Finds included a hammer, which we were able to nail, while the usual suspects wrappers, cans and bottles were litter-ally very predicable.
Overall we were all very satisfied that we could offer a litter bit of help!

As our first experiment in recruiting new members, Saturday morning’s mission was a good start. We were blessed with fine weather and the location was ideal for the morning walkers by the river (thanks to Trevor for letting us use the Sea Scouts archway).

Adam and Chris came via JP’s home to collect and help carry the roller banners and table. We set these up and stood ready to talk to passers-by about the wonderful thing that is GoodGym in Richmond.

We spent an hour - it’s difficult to keep energy high when trying to stop people to talk to them! - and managed to get a good list of emails from people keen to know more about what we do. Hopefully a few others will have noted the signs and will find us on their own. And we picked up a few ideas for how to improve the exercise next time. All in all a worthwhile exercise and one to be repeated!

Jp, Susannah, Sabina, Manuela and Adam attended our quarterly visit to the Richmond Furniture Scheme.

We we were tasked by RFS Volunteer Coordinator Lucy with raking up and clearing the overgrown ivy, weeds and brambles in the yard. This makes it more presentable and accessible for would be customers visiting the Scheme.

Needless to say the ivy and brambles caused much rakes and pains, but as seasoned Good Gymmer's we were able to rake this off and re-leaf RFS of this yard work.

What a lovely evening over the river at Marble Hill Play Centres. GoodGym Richmond haven't been there since before COVID and most of us hadn't been there at all, so it was a lovely surprise to discover this large play area in Marble Hill Park. Especially so given that trustees Steph and Kelly were there to meet us and made us feel so welcome immediately!

A huge hello to Danielle and Basia who joined us for their first ever GoodGym task and got stuck straight in with helping to rake bark, litter pick and weed thistles and saplings across the play area.

At the end of our time, we took a step back to take a photo and could really see the result of many hands at work. We worked out that the session would be equal to a full day of non-stop work for one energetic person, what a great example of what GoodGym can help to achieve in just 45 minutes!

We will be back there soon, keep an eye on listings. Thank you Marble Hill Play Centres!

Second Monday of the month means GoodGym Richmond signature evening: jog to our sponsored plot, 10 min bodyweight workout, task and then pub. A lovely evening to look forward roneach month.

The riverside was lively this evening with all kinds of characters as we gardened, squatted, watered, lunged and destroying the large hop plant that had been causing skin irritation.

All of which thoroughly deserved a little drink at the White Cross, well done all!

A hot evening did not stop a hot effort from all six GoodGymmers this evening who put everything into the vast garden at St Christopher's Fellowship in East Twickenham.

Cutting back, weeding, turning over soil, strimming and sweeping were the order of the evening, across the front and back gardens. But this evening the most stark divide was not front and back but other side of the garden's own fox superhighway: a visible path across the lawn where foxes travel every night! We took our photo along this smart motorway and I'm sure the team were happy it only involved silly walking and not fox impressions!