LET’S EAT PIZZA! So, GoodGym Camden are going to eat pizza at Happy Face on the 11th December after our run. TODAY IS THE FINAL DAY TO SIGN UP, so please get your name down if you want to come!

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37 (!!!) brave and intrepid GoodGymers made it out to GoodGym Camden on a drizzly Wednesday night for another two-task night. We welcomed a shiny new person to the Camden herd - hello Hanna, I hope you enjoyed yourselves tonight.

Next week's run will be to C4WS again as well as back to Cecil Sharp House - sign up here if you want to get ahead of the game!

After a quick intro, we stretched and split up into two groups - C4WS (the Homeless Shelter) was led by our trusty light provider Hanry, the Scope group by me.

Arriving at Scope just before 7:30, we stormed the shop, met Helen and her incredibly organised list of activities for us to get stuck into before we split into teams:

• Team Jewellery
• Team Shoes
• Team Rag or Bag
• Team Shirley
• And finally, what can only be described as Team Fancy Dress.

A monster task - and one that we’ll definitely have to come back to - was to sort and price jewellery for the shop. No special marks for correctly identifying that this was Team Jewellery’s domain!

Also down on the shop floor there was some dusting, cleaning and organising of a shoe rack to be done, efficiently tackled by Team Shoes.

In the back we had Team Rag og Bag running a tight ship, leading the sort through of donations into bags that the shop will keep and sell and one they’ll recycle. Like a little production line of elves, they worked away right until the final minute we were there.

Upstairs were both Team Shirley (the brilliant husband and wife team of John and Jackie and Team Fancy Dress. Team Shirley were in charge with cleaning the upstairs bannisters, kitchen and floors which they did magnificently if I say so myself.

Finally, Team Fancy Dress! De-facto led by Rosie in a jumpsuit/Oompa Loompa dual-purpose item, there was steaming, sorting through, pricing and tagging clothes to go out onto the shop floor. See the photos for some particularly sharp Christmas suits, great wigs and strong Christmas jumpers!

Just gone 8pm, we waved goodbye to Helen and headed back to the Living Centre to meet back up with Hanry’s homeless shelter team for a final stretch and cool down.

Over at C4WS, the team did a fantastic job of making up 16 male beds and 4 female beds for the homeless users of the church. Jonathan was very impressed with what you achieved, so well done everyone! After the task was done there, it was a run over to Granary Square for some laps and fitness before heading back and regrouping.

We had a particularly good turnout at the pub after the run tonight. Everyone is welcome and it’s a great way to carry on chatting to GoodGym folks over a drink. Abi is the de-facto pub leader, and I know she’d love to see you there if you fancy coming along next time.

COMMUNITY MISSION ALERT: David from Russell Square Garden got in touch to say how impressed he was with our work a few weeks ago in the bulb-planting and fence-post-putting-up and asked if we might be able to come and [clear some leaves this Saturday 2:30-4:30.] Please do come along and help out - Liz is bringing cake!

NEXT WEEK: We’re going to be running back to the Home of Folk (Cecil Sharp) and C4WS again next week for some more leaf-clearing and bed-making. Would be great to see you there and you should definitely sign up now!

LET’S EAT PIZZA: So GoodGym Camden are going to eat pizza at Happy Face on the 11th December after our run. TODAY IS THE FINAL DAY TO SIGN UP, so please get your name down if you want to come.

Happy running,

Ben

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