30 GoodGymers helped Freightliners City Farm, ran 5km and did a fitness session!

Welcome along to newbies Jenny, Evelyn, Rose and Lily - whose first time it was last night, hope you enjoyed it! Also welcome to Pete, GG Stockport Runner, who was doing a bit of tourism last night!

In the news this week:

1. Come along to the last Thursday social of the year this week in Bethnal Green - see full details here.
2. November's Long Run is on Saturday 17th November along the wonderful Southwark Circle led by the fantastic Frances - see more info here.
3. Lastly of course is the GG Christmas Party - gonna be lots of fun! What woman will I dress as this year?

Corrrrr what a fun evening, we were off to the amazing Freightliners City Farm where Liz (Farm Manager) was on fireworks watch as the animals can understandably get a bit jumpy around with all that banging! On our run there we did a little run around Highbury Fields and arrived at the farm ready for work! While everyone chilled out with the animals Liz explained the tasks to me:

Team Poo: Remember Remember the Poo of November.... A strong team of 10 armed with gloves, wellies and forks worked hard to shovel and fork poo over three piles. Essentially new strawy poo was put on top of the older firmer poo on pile number one, the task was to fork the top layer of strawy poo from pile number one to pile two and three. It was steamy, it was smelly but the team did amazingly well.

Scrub-a-dub, pub

Team Scrub: Another team of 10 was tasked with scrubbing and cleaning the classroom floor next to the indoor animal enclosures. Firstly the team took and carried out tables, chairs and more so they could fully assess the floor. Then using a combo of hot water, paper-towl and scrubbing cloths to clean the floor - and wow that floor was dirty! Good work guys!

Team Everything Else: The remaining 10 people shifted bags of debris and wooden rubbish into a van, plus they swept and raked leaves and straw around the gardens, yard and animal pens.

Once we were finished we headed off to the Emirates for a round of circuits, a fartlek session and biscuit time! This was beautifully followed by sparklers fun and a trip to the pub - thanks for organising Graham :)

Sign up for the next week here, we are off to shift 5 tonnes of woodchip/mulch for The Single Homeless Project.

PB out.

26 Goodgymers ran 4-5km to help Thornhill Square Gardens and Single Homeless Project with various gardening jobs

Welcome along to the newbies - Anna, Olivia, Heather, Jarmo, Tessa and Nina - great to have you join us!

In the news this week:

1. A massive well done to Ben who hit the magical 100 Good Deeds last night - woop woop! Ben has been coming to Islington GG for over 3 years and has made a huge impact.
2. Also more celebrations - well done to Lucy who hit 50 good deeds last night. Smashing her goal of hitting the milestone in under a year of attending - awesome sauce!
3. GG Monthly drinks are on Thursday 4th October at the Islington Townhouse in Angel - come along :)

After warming up we split into two groups heading to help the wonderful Thornhill Square Gardens and Single Homeless Project.

Thornhill Square Gardens Report by Aidan:

A welcome return to Thornhill Square Gardens for some of us this week and definitely a reminder that headtorch season is upon us!

Caroline took navigator role for the way there, weaving us through the streets of Islington to get us there safely. We had two beds which needed some TLC with a bit of weeding, edging and turning of the soil. Also some bushes which had got a bit wildly and needed some levelling to make them look smarter. Speedy running and speedy work meant we had time to help tidy up another plot before we broke for a chocolate finger break. Yum.

With a run back to base completed we still had time for a few cheeky hill sprints next to Emirates before a stretch out.

Single Homeless Project Report:

The rest of us ran up hill to Crouch Hill to help the wonderful Single Homeless Project, which provides accommodation, care and support to homeless people in our community. We met the wonderful Sam from the charity that told us we had lots to do over two properties on Ashley Road:

• Clearing beds of weeds and turning over the soil
• Tidying up and chopping back tree's and bushes along the pathways
• Bagging up all the weeds and debris we'd piled up

We've been helping the SHP a lot this year but this was our first time at this site, great to lend a hand! Over 30 minutes we got tons done for our local community - well done all.

Thanks for coming everyone, great evening helping our community in Islington. Next week we will be painting veg boxes for the Friends of Grenville Gardens (FROGG) - sign up here. Please bring a headtorch from now on to group runs!

PB out