Monday night was another big one at Cranbrook Community Centre!

We got stuck into improving the outside areas, with plenty of leaf picking, clearing up and getting the garden looking a little more loved. Lucinda also came prepared with the lights and made sure everyone had gloves, which definitely came in handy as it started getting darker!

We also had a couple of new faces join us, including someone doing their very first GoodGym session! It was lovely to have them join us at Cranbrook, and hopefully we’ll see them back here again soon

But the biggest celebration of the evening was for Kareem, who completed his 100th GoodGym session! 🎉 It was also his last session with us for a while as he’s moving on to his next plans, so it was a lovely way to mark the occasion. We’ll definitely miss having him around, and wishing him all the best with whatever comes next!

A big thank you to everyone who came along, got stuck in and helped make a difference to the outside space. Another Monday night well spent!

Lady Andrea was quick to invite GoodGym to host a stall at St Matthew's community event to celebrate the church's 280th birthday. A lot of people were interested to hear about us, and many took our flyers. I also had a lady from a community organisation asking for our help, so look out for a brand new task on a future Monday night! We also got to sample the buffet, climbed the church tower, listened to a history talk, got a demonstration of the organ, rang the bells and saw the inner workings of the clock

Our only panic came when we emerged from the tower to find our precious GoodGym flag had disappeared! After some detective work, we discovered that Lady Andrea had taken it home for safe keeping. So we got to see the fantastic collection of plants on her balcony!

REPORT BY NAZIFA

St Matthew’s Gardens had certainly accumulated its fair share of leaves, so it was time for the GoodGym crew to get involved! 🍂

The task was mainly focused on clearing leaves from around the garden and churchyard, with a little bit of litter picking thrown in too. There were* A LOT* of leaves to tackle, but everyone got stuck in. We picked, swept, gathered and bagged them up, with plenty of bags being filled along the way

I made sure everyone had bags to collect the leaves in, and it was great seeing everyone working together to clear the paths and tidy up the area. There was definitely no shortage of leaves, but we managed to make a good dent in them!

It was also my first time leading a GoodGym session, so I was really happy with how everything went. As Emma would say, I can’t “be-leaf”it was my first one!

A big thank you to everyone who came along and helped out. It was a really good experience for my first time leading, and I think we all did a great job

This week's big Monday night task took us to St Peter's Church and it was light work for the group of 14! We welcomed new joiner Emmanuel and wished Anna a happy birthday 🎂

The first half of the session involved a sweep of fallen leaves, a quick litter pick and removing misplaced large stones from the flower beds. With sunset falling at around 7.30pm, our attentions turned to installing a network of garden lights, planting stakes into the ground at well triangulated distances apart. The switch-on moment proved a satisfying end to the evening.

Lucinda was in the North. Northern Emma had gone West. Others were watching Fulham or were off work sick. But Chris travelled over, despite a very early morning next day, and another six of us set to work collecting every last bit of litter from the Cranbrook gardens, front and back, as well as a huge number of leaves which had accumulated rather earlier than usual this year

Emma mounted the mound, Jo lifted litter, Adam pulled plastic out of trees, while Kareem filled bags with all kinds of debris. And as for Kitty – what can we say about the ever-cheerful Kitty who sauntered up to GoodGym one day on the Isle of Dogs and has never looked back – congratulations to her on her golden anniversary: 50 good deeds, just in time before she departs London for the shire counties – temporarily we hope…