33 Goodgymers ran 4-5k to help Little Village Camden Branch make cots and wrap gifts for local mum's

Welcome along to the newbies - Lizzy & William - great to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. It's my last GoodGym Camden on 14th August, I'd love you guys to all come along for the run and the pizza + beers party afterwards.
2. It's the GoodGym Olympics on Saturday, come along from midday for the best day of the year! Last minute events may be avaliable.
3. Lots of community missions happening this week - including a Friday one helping Story Garden.

Corrrr what a fun evening! A lovely big turnout, a wholesome task and a nice run to finish.

Kat led the group for a 1km loop while Liz and I walked over to the task. Sarah and her colleague from Little Village Camden Branch where very much ready for us. They explained how their project helps to work as an gift bank where people donate anything from cots to soap, these are then sorted and then distributed to local families.

We split into eight groups for the task, the first of which packed and wrapped products as a present to local mum's. Over 40 minutes the team worked hard packing these presents up, filling boxes and boxes!

Everyone else was put in groups of 3-4 people to make up seven different cots (including a Boris Toddler!), they were all different and only one came with instructions. The task was to put the cots together, check they had all the parts needed, make sure everything was safe and then write out clear instructions for the donors to use.

Helping local mum's and babies!

Each team had it's own method to building and writing out the instructions. Over 40 minutes all the teams completed the tasks set, with Chris' team finishing first and arguably Dharmesh's team having the hardest to put together. Two teams managed to get onto a second cot but unfortunately both missed parts.

It was nice to have a different task that didn't involve weeds or woodchip, it involved lots of team work and everyone did great - well done!

After taking a group picture Kat led the group for a run around the canals and Granary Square - nice!

Sign up for next week here, task(s) tbc.

PB out

34 Camdenites helped the Story Garden for one hour to prepare the community garden for the opening on Saturday!

Welcome along to Rhiannon, Ana, Theo and Laura whose first time it was last night - fantastic to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. Kentish Town City Farm has been saved! YAY! The petition and media attention worked - the old trustee board has been removed and a new one put in place. PLUS a very kind donor has given £100,000 to pay off the farms debts and given it a great basis to go on from. Read more here.
2. We've got lots of community missions this Saturday helping to set up, pack up and look after a GoodGym Stall. See all the community missions here.
3. Join the GoodGym Camden Facebook Group here.

Wow what a night of GOOD, we really put the GOOD and the GYM in GoodGym! We helped the wonderful Story Garden, which is run by Global Generation, get prepared for their public opening this Saturday - chiefly making the site safe for the public.

After 200 metres of running/walking we arrived at the Story Garden, lots of volunteers were already at work drilling, building sheds and more. Martina explained we were the biggest group they'd ever come to help and they really appreciated that. She split us into five groups:

1. A huge team shovelled and wheelbarrowed woodchip from the HUGE pile to all over the garden. Once wheelbarrowed over people were there to spread to across.
2. A team of eight moved sheds from one corner of the site to the other - there they will be built and then laid out in their positions. Some strong shifting going on!
3. A team of four shifted huge containers of soil from the tonne bags over the build planters in the centre of the garden - feeding those new plants and making it look more like a garden!
4. Another group of four shifted huge bags of compost in the pollytunnel to their correct position and then joined team one to shift all the woodchip.
5. The final group of eight moved scaffolding and odd bits of wood over the corner. These will be used to make an array of things - including a fence, planters and anything else going.

King of the Woodchip!

There was so much constant movement going on, GoodGymers walking every which way on their individual tasks. It was awesome to see - particularly from on to of the huge pile of woodchip. Now that's some POV! Over one hour we got absolutely tonnes done, literally 34 hours of volunteering work - that is fantastic, well done all. Martina was so pleased by our efforts :)

With 20 minutes left of the session we did a quick dynamic warm up and then went for a 3k run around the canals and Granary Square. Lovely stuff. We then finished the evening with a brilliant pub trip!

Next week we are all going to help Cecil Sharp House, sign up here.

PB out

*28 Goodgymers ran 4-11.5k to help SPCA and St Mungos! *

Welcome along to newbies Emily, Ellie, Catherine and Ellie - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. There are Community Missions helping Somers Town Community Festival next Saturday - details here and here!
2. It's the Night of the PB's this Saturday at Hampstead Heath!
3. Monthly Social today in Kilburn from 6.30pm; go along and have fun! Full details here.

St Mungo's Long Run:

Fourteen brave GoodGymers volunteered for GG Camden's longest run ever! I did the intro early and rather fast (Steve said it was my best ever haha) so we had more time to get over to West Hampstead. We set off on an adventure, up past Cecil Sharp House, around the side of Primrose Hill, over to Swiss Cottage and then up Finchley (lands that I've never been before). We kept a really good pace and everyone did brilliantly.

Perfect amount of task

We arrived and met Janice who gave us gloves, bin bags and water. Our task was to weed and clear the entire back garden. It was overgrown and clearly unused by the residents of the St Mungo's hostel. This fantastic homeless charity helps house and support people from across the community. Our help will mean they can now use the the garden and perhaps even plant some flowers/veg.

Over 20 minutes we made piles and piles of weeds, debris and dead plants. People took in turns to empty bin bags in the green recycling bin out front. In no time at all we were finished, group photo done and then we headed back home along the same route.

Leafleting task for SPCA:

Fifteen awesome GoodGymers, led by Frances, went to leaflet for the fantastic St Pancras Community Association (SPCA). We've helped these guys lots before with Christmas decorations, dancing and even a core class! This time we were leafleting over 400 flyers for their Community Festival which is happening in late July - nice!

Greece Lighting!

The group first ran 1km to the centre, collected the leaflets from Nicola and then split into groups of 4-5 to deliver them across the designated areas in Camden. After successfully delivering all of the leaflets the team collected together and headed to Granary Square along the canal, where they suitably got distracted by Greece showing on the big Wimbledon Screen (fair enough guys)

Another brilliant night of GoodGym, sign up for next week's run here when we'll be helping Story Garden!

PB out