Absence makes the heart grow fonder

At least that is what the Worthing parkrun team anticipated. Having been “paused” for 6 weeks, a large turnout was expected. With local parkruns having struggled during that time to fill their volunteer roster, the call went out. If there’s going to be a shortage of volunteers in your neighbourhood, who you gonna call? GoodGym!

The call was answered

Four GoodGymers, with no fear of the forecast weather, stepped up to the task. Belinda, as she likes to do, directed proceedings. Ricky, threw himself thoroughly into the task. Set up, marshalling, and clear down, as well as a few kilometres of running Ricky showed more energy than the predicted storm could muster. John set up the speaker system to ensure there was no excuse for the briefing being missed. No excuse for the pesky rule breakers this week. Paul meanwhile kept a close watch on proceedings. Well, not so much a watch, more the volunteer app, recording accurate finish times for the participants.

Sometimes it’s good to be quiet

Fortunately the expected deluge didn’t happen. In fact neither expected deluge! The storm delayed its arrival long enough for us to be safely finished, something which was also helped by the unusually low numbers.

Does anyone listen to the briefing?

It seems they do. And we have evidence. After all the usual celebratory and health and safety items were covered Belinda made a significant announcement. A potential course for a second Worthing parkrun has been identified! The call is out for any volunteers who would like to help move this forward from possible to real. Go on, you know you want to - or you know someone who does. Please share!

Our final visit of the year to St Botolph’s Church garden was upon us, and there was no time for holly-dollying about! We were back in the poppy garden, continuing the clearance work we started last week, determined to get things looking shipshape ahead of Remembrance Day.

Elvira kicked things off by tackling the ivy and brambles before joining Julia in the somewhat prickly business of cutting down two holly trees. She pulled and pushed and nearly lost her feet on tackling the first one - the photos give the essence of that particular situation!! The bigger tree one needed a final bit of pulling and pushing from John to persuade it to give up its place. It seems our holly was no longer jolly, and the ivy was definitely getting ideas above its station!

Meanwhile, Belinda was working incredibly hard to get the ivy under control, showing impressive determination and an eye for every last detail. No sneaky tendril was going to escape her attention!

John and Stephane were busy digging out brambles, enabling Julia to collect the prickly spoils and ferry them off to the compost heap. A proper team effort, with everyone rooting for the same result!

Having already clocked up an impressive 7k run, Ricky pitched in to give Stephane a helping hand . Plus there was an extra reason to celebrate, as tonight marked Ricky’s 7th GoodGym anniversary! Seven years of running, volunteering and being part of GG Worthing , Brighton and parkrun — now that really is something to crow about. A lucky seven for a thoroughly deserving GoodGym member.

As a special 'end-of-term treat' we were invited inside the church to see the memorial wall in the Lady Chapel, bearing the names of the fallen servicemen. It was a very moving moment and a reminder of why our work in the poppy garden matters so much.

By Remembrance Day, there will be one poppy in the garden to commemorate each of the 89 men who lost their lives. Sadly, one of those named was recorded as a boy. 😪 A poignant tribute to those who never returned, and a lovely way for the garden to help keep their memories alive.

And, of course, no end-of-term celebration would be complete without a little appreciation for our efforts. We were presented with thank-you cards signed by members of the parish council, along with enormous homemade ginger and fudge cookies baked by Rik. Yum yum!

A huge thank you to everyone at St Botolph’s for making us feel so welcome throughout the year, and to our wonderful GoodGym gang for another evening of graft, good company and community spirit.

We may have reached the end of our gardening year, but the memories — and hopefully not the weeds — will keep on growing!