Galleywall Nature Reserve Part 1: Good Going Gemma

After the day threatened to be a wash-out, thankfully, as the GoodGymers met up at Old Spike, it started to clear as Katy, Tim, Emma, Louise, Gemma, Daryl and Claire chatted away as they met up. As Sam gave his GG update, he did not forget that it was Gemma's 50th good deed tonight as he draped her with the GG cloak and gave her a green balloon (Green for Gemma)!

After Sam delivered his intro speech, they made their way to the alleyway as it was closer to go out that way after their warm-up. Sam prepared them in advance for tonight's ice-breaker question, which was: Yesterday was World Wide Web Day (this is not to be confused with the Internet), so what is your favourite most visited website (make it harder for yourself...choose a website that doesn't have an app and is just on the World Wide Web...)?

A couple of us chose GoodGym.org, there were classics like Google, Google Maps, Facebook, Tumblr, Reddit and more obscure ones like receiptify.herokuapp.com...

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Still searching...

As we judged our selections for websites, we ran through the backstreets of Peckham through the Surrey Canal Walk and across Old Kent Road to get to Galleywall Nature Reserve. Arriving slightly late, we found Frances already getting stuck in with breaking down the shed with Alan, Folarin and Jessie had just arrived and as Jane was giving out the tasks, Emma came in with her bike.

There were a variety of jobs, but due to a GG corporate volunteer group cancelling for a session on Thursday, our main priority was to dismantle/prepare the area around the old shed. Joining Frances in the shed we had Katy and Tim. Emma, Claire and eventually Jessie (who started off pinning wooden stakes into the ground to support a tree and clearing items around the shed) helped with digging and burying a hose pipe. Folarin partnered up with a Galleywall Nature Reserve volunteer as they cleared a path near the polytunnel of weeds. Louise and Emma first joined Jessie in pinning up the tree before moving to clearing items. This was the task Gemma and Daryl started with. Finally, Sam did some litter picking.

All these little tasks added up so much value in the 40 minutes we were at Galleywall Nature Reserve. Well done team!

A few of us departed from Galleywall whilst others like Jessie joined us on the run back as we had our monthly social. This time, we decided to visit CLF Art Lounge by Peckham Rye station as it will be moved soon due to the expansion of Peckham Rye station. Joining us for the social we had Nelly and Louise's partner come along.

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Thank You to all the GG-ers

A personal thanks from me to all those who came out tonight! What an unforgettable evening as not only did we do amazing work at Galleywall Nature Reserve (to be continued), but we celebrated Gemma's 50th good deed in style....yes, the monthly social was planned for the first Wednesday of the month, but it was still fitting.

Thanks to Daryl and Emma for backmarking either way.

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Thank You to Alan, Eddie and Jane

GoodGym is all about getting fit and doing good! We praise the runners/cyclists/walkers who come to get fit and help out, but we often forget about our task owner. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Alan, Eddie and Jane for their continued support for this massive re-development project at Galleywall Nature Reserve. We were pleased you had plenty of tasks to split the 12 of us in 4 teams. There will be more next week!