Good deeds make for fewer weeds

Shunning the Bank Holiday sofa in favour of a good deed, 18 epic athletes covered around 4km of running and cleared LOTS of weeds at Glebe Court.

Many of our runners took part in the London 10k this morning, with some also managing to turn up and take part this evening! Check out our lovely Medal Monday photo (and extra special well done to Kim and Vic, who both bagged a personal best time).

Thank you once again to Oli, who has done himself proud with this week's title pun (and others throughout this report). When is he going to win the International Pun of the Month?!

NEWS

• Thank you to those of you who joined our neighbours GoodGym Bromley at their volunteer takeover, at South Norwood parkrun on Saturday. It was a lovely morning and the core team and runners really appreciated our help. We have our own volunteer takeover on June 9th at Hilly Fields junior parkrun - no experience or special training needed, just a good clear cheering voice and plenty of energy! Sign up and find our more here.

• A little later in June we have another community mission, over at the children's centre in Bellingham, all details here.

• Don't forget, we're coming up to our Summer Social at Wildcat Wilderness! Have a look here and add your name to the list.

EDIT

It seems one of our runners very quietly hit the big 1-0-0 this evening without mentioning it! Congratulations Anna, it's even more special that so many of your good deeds have been to visit older people and help them in their homes, well done.

Last week Ian became a fully qualified Run Leader so, in celebration, he led the warm-up and took the front on the run. I loved having a chance to join in a game I normally get other people to play (and will definitely be using pegs instead of cones from now on, ingenious!) and all those squats, we were definitely fired up to run. Thank you to Marta taking the role of back-marker on the way out and to Chloe for taking over on the return leg.

Out with the old (chairs), in with the new (location)

We haven't been to Glebe Court before, so it was great to hear from Jenni about the work they do here. This Salvation Army residential space is home to a number of older people living with dementia, who require around-the-clock care, so the outdoor space is important for residents and staff to enjoy, with some taking time to go outside and tend to the plants. Our job was to clear away some old furniture (Jenni told us they will be moving to a different space in the next few months, so this is very helpful), clear weeds, tackle brambles and generally have a good tidy up.

Night out on the pull

A few people stayed around the front of the building, doing a fantastic job of improving the appearance of the area that people see first. It seems that one of the residents used to be a gardener and had commented that 'You won't be able to do anything with that!' I think he might be pleasantly surprised! Around the back we had a trail of helping hands shifting the unwanted furniture to the skip, while others pulled, chopped, swept and turned over (or fell over in Vic's case, as she pulled and pulled and pulled at a stubborn weed that eventually threw her off balance as she got the better of it!). As we spent time here, we could see what an oasis this must be, with birds coming and going to the feeders, with roses in full bloom all around.

A sense of (Lady)well-being

Gathering up tools and tidying away the rubbish, it was time to head back towards our start point. As we were so close to Ladywell Fields, we took advantage of this lovely space for our fitness session, working in pairs on a lucky dip game. Great determination from everyone to complete the challenges, even if racing legs were tired! Next week we will have another new task, again in Ladywell, working in the outside space at the Children's Centre - sign up here to join us.

Have a great week!