12 GoodGymers from ALL OVER London caught some Camden good deeding last night!

Our group last night — super friendly and willing to help as always — hailed from the West and the East and the Middle of London!

It was a multi-borough affair and we were all there to do our usual good deeding at the American International Church for their Winter Shelter :)

Ana, Ariane, Jack, Jackie, Jacqui, John, Kash, Lucinda, Lydia, Steph, and Steve did the GoodGym usual and got completely stuck into all the helping:

❤️ 16 beds were assembled, dressed, and positioned ready for the evening's guests!

❤️ 1 dining room was set with tables and cutlery and napkins and sauces, and the bubbling scents from the kitchen made us want to stay!

❤️ Multiple boxes were lifted and shifted and moved to where they need to be!

And we left having had connection and laughter, and it all made yesterday's January evening feel a lot brighter!

See you next time!!

P.S. Thank you, Jacqui and Steph, for the wonderful photos!!

On a windy Tuesday night, six GoodGymers came together for an (unintentional) Winston Churchill-themed litterpick. Little did they know about what they'd find in South Ealing, where they ran from Ealing Broadway. Armed with litter pickers and bin bags from their allies, LAGER Can, they were determined that they would fight in the alleyways and on the streets, and they would never surrender.

The GoodGymers' main enemy was rubbish dropped along the alleyway splitting the South Ealing Cemetery into two, but, under a cover of leaves, the group found things that were hardly classified as litter. Next to a small collection of pots and vases, Conor found a bust of Winston Churchill, and Harvey discovered a toy British Bulldog! Or was it just a pug?

Rather than cigar butts, the team kept finding single-use vapes, which Churchill would surely disapprove of. Neither would he endorse the cheap beer cans and four laughing gas canisters which Harvey carried out of the alleyway for collection.

Walking through a lane of birches raised some questions about the white sheet-shaped deposits found in abundance on that stretch. Some GoodGymers would have sworn that it was paper (which, according to a quote often attributed to Churchill, was the enemy of action) or even wallpaper. Others, maybe better versed in dendrology, explained it was bark from the birches and didn't need to be collected.

The battle against litter ended on South Ealing Road, at the first available bin, where it was appropriate to leave two blue bags of collected mess. Those who hadn't tried it ahead of the group run had the last chance to taste Maria's home-baked coconut puffs that she brought today - what a treat! Having accomplished the task in about half an hour, half of the team ran back to Ealing Broadway to either catch a bus or a train or... run back to South Ealing.

Sevan and Kash usually take a break from GoodGym on Mondays, but for Ms K, they've found a space in their calendars and visited her in the evening, after work.

"Happy New Year!", Ms K welcomed the GoodGymers.

In fact, the two saw Ms K for a mission on New Year's Day to build a bed. Since then, the lady's bedroom underwent quite a transformation! The wardrobes have been filled, chairs brought in, one of the walls repainted, and rugs covered the floor. Most importantly, the bed, which Sevan and Kash had started building, had been finished with some help from Ms K's friend. It was great to see the room usable, and a proper place to sleep for Ms K already functional. The only thing missing was the wardrobes' doors.

Sevan was hoping that attaching the hinges and hanging the doors on the two wardrobes would be pretty easy. And it was. The surprising part had nothing to do with the hinges, but the door handles. There were no holes to screw them in! As it turned out, to attach the handles, one had to drill holes in the doors - in IKEA furniture, can you believe it? Electric tools were a no-go at a GoodGym mission, so the duo focused only on attaching the doors to the wardrobes. They left the drilling for Ms K's friend, who was coming to visit the following day.

"We actually finished this mission well ahead of allocated time", Sevan triumphed.

Finally, with the wardrobes' doors closed, Ms K's bedroom looked like a proper bedroom. Well, maybe except for the handles!

A mild January sunday afternoon saw a large group of volunteers meet by the Pear Tree Park cafe for some tree planting. The trees were, you guessed it, different varieties of pear trees.

A lot of work had already been done in an earlier session, but that still left digging, pile driving fence posts into the ground, spreading compost and mulch and finally applying a protective cover. There were a couple of unfortunate mishaps, including someone who planted 6 trees in one hole and a bucket that didnt survive the attentions of an excited dog. But overall it was a very successful and satisfying bit of community action - one that will hopefully bear plenty of fruit for years to come.