The darling muds of May

Fancy building a kitchen?

At the end of May, I received an email from Barbara Lo Giudice, the Head of Virginia Primary in Shoreditch, which sounded like pure GoodGym treasure, "Would you be able to help us with some work we are hoping to do on our Early Years play area? Our mud kitchen and sand box have unfortunately rotted away after many years of use (the children really enjoy them) and we were wondering if you had any volunteers with the knowledge, expertise and willingness to build us some?"

I imagined GoodGym involvement would consist of a shout-out for members with some decent practical skills, followed by a small Community Mission of holding planks of wood as the kitchen was assembled.

But following a site visit to the school, I realised our assistance would be a little more along the lines of design, timber-sourcing and construction.

"Johnny, I don't suppose you have time to cast your eye over this?", I asked architect and TH regular, Johnny Lui.

Before I knew it, Johnny had arranged a site visit and was heading over to the school to talk plans with the team.

As the weeks unfolded, so did the planning and prep, taking an evermore exciting turn each week:

• Johnny started by drafting perfect plans for the kitchen in his spare time.

• He then recruited the support of the Canary Wharf Group, who along with James Johnson, sourced and funded the timber for the project, and proceeded to build the kitchen.

• The kitchen was installed on October 22nd.

A task-and-a-half.

The biggest thank-you's

Shout-outs don't really do it justice. Suffice to say, our Johnny, Andy Unwin and the whole team at the Canary Wharf Group; ditto James Johnson, have achieved so much in a few months for this school.

Thank you.