After burning through an impressive pile of woodchip in a single session in March at Lammas Enclosure Community Orchard, the bar was raised for GoodGymers: the woodchip delivery that followed almost doubled the size of the heap! We’d like to say that the number of GoodGymers at the Tuesday sessions also doubled. Well, we are not there yet, but last night we came with a strong team of eight to destroy the new pile, and - more importantly - refresh the path in the enclosure and the Forest School seating area by spreading fresh woodchip.

A range of runners, cyclists and walkers made their way to Walpole Park to help pick up the tools for the task. Sevan, who led the task, Conor and Kash ran from Ealing Broadway, Jo and James cycled, and Marie, Chris and Anna walked to the task. Marie made a big comeback after a break from GoodGym, combining the woodchipping session with plenty of walking for her step challenge - we’re sure she’ll smash it!

While pushing wheelbarrows offered a perfect way to get more steps in the day, raking and loading woodchip into barrows targeted different muscle groups.

”The shovelling is a proper upper body workout!”

With a dedicated team of GoodGymers hungry for an impactful activity, only the number of wheelbarrows available stood in the way of finishing off the woodchip pile. In less than an hour, a thick layer of woodchip was covering the path from the orchard gate to the circle of logs in the Forest School, which was also neatly surrounded by woodchip. Great work, everyone!

Next week, we’re heading 2km East of Ealing Broadway to tackle the litter haunting an alleyway between West Acton and Park Royal. Sign up now!

After a morning of cheering almost a record-breaking number of young runners at Acton junior parkrun, four GoodGymers went for a 6 km walk to another task in Ealing. Maria stepped in at the last-minute to join the session with Care4Calais after finding out that a slot had unexpectedly freed up. Well done, Maria!

Sevan, Steph Ducat, Kash and Maria met with task owner Tamzin, who had three types of jobs for them.

Pushchair washing

A wave of donated baby 4-wheels just hit Care4Calais - some particularly grubby - which meant that Kash’s services were in demand. As the usual pram cleaner, Kash swapped her socks for crocs, grabbed a brush and a hose, and spent a decent chunk of the session enjoying herself outdoors, giving used pushchairs a good jet wash. She even found a 10-pence coin - a tip for her efforts - in one of the vehicles.

Men’s clothes sorting

Who would better handle categorising and organising mixed-up men’s stock than a double-act of GoodGym guys? Sevan and Steph powered through all sizes of masculine outfits, including a quite niche 6XL pair of trousers. They found a range of formal apparel: suits, shirts and waistcoats, unfortunately, inappropriate for the asylum seekers living in hotels. The session had a record number of unsuitable donations: from heavily worn underwear to non-clothing items such as a deodorant or hunk soap, which were deemed to end up in a bin or a charity shop.

Making packs

Maria lent Tamzin a hand with making parcels for adults and children, including shoe packs and bags with school uniforms. Tamzin had special goodie bags for kids containing water bottles, notebooks, hair clips and bands for little girls. Maria even packed some really cute carrier bags made of material that felt like a teddy bear!

The last 20 minutes of the task everyone spent packing up excess sorted men's clothes into temporary boxes and bags, then stomping on cardboard shoe boxes to fit them in a recycling bin. Four GoodGymers got so much done in just two hours! Tamzin received a full 8-hour volunteer workday of help to support refugees in a single GoodGym session - how impactful is that!