For our midweek task this week, we were back at Holy Trinity Lamorbey Primary School where we tackled the Art Cupboard of Doom 😱.

Some of us ran from the leisure centre, while others made their own way there. We were greeted by the school’s vice principal, Jane, and her gorgeous dog Brecon, who spends one day a week helping out in classrooms.

Brecon kept a close eye on our antics as we got to grips with the task at hand: emptying the long-neglected, overstuffed art cupboard, ferrying everything into a spare classroom next door ready to be sorted and reorganised by the school's art teachers.

And there was certainly a lot to move!

We came across every kind of art, craft, and D&T material you’d expect to find 🎨🖌️⚙️✂️, and some unexpected items too, including two vintage weather-display boards (likely from the 1970s), a small bongo drum, and a little paint-smudged teddy that had clearly slipped behind the shelves and been long-since forgotten.

Between trips, we took turns throwing Brecon’s ball along the corridor, keeping her happily occupied in an endless game of fetch.

Just one hour later, after plenty of back-and-forth and the occasional exclamation from Jane, “Oh, so that’s where that went", "I was looking for that last week!” and “Why would anyone have kept that?!”, it was mission accomplished. We'd cleared the cupboard and filled a stack of bin bags with bottles of dried-up plaster paints, set-hard paintbrushes, and rock-solid modelling clay.

In the new year, we hope to return to take down some of the old shelving and give the cupboard a fresh coat of paint to complete its Cinderella-like transformation into a clean and usable space once more. ✨

In a couple of weeks we are helping the Community Hospice collect donations alongside Bexley Rotary Club's much loved Santa Sleigh. Our task this evening was delivering leaflets to houses along the route so they knew when Santa will be visiting their street.

It was an earlier-than-usual start as we were heading for our Xmas meal straight after the task.

We set off briskly, admiring the Christmas lights and decorations as we weaved our way in and out of driveways. On route we arrived at the Xmas House ablaze with lights and it's own Santa sleigh 🛷 🎅🏻 on the roof! What a spectacle!

After photos we carried on with the leaflets, racing around the roads to cover as much ground as possible. Unfortunately Manish had an encounter with an excited pup 🐶 and needed to get some medical advice. We wish him well and hope to see him soon.

Leaflets delivered, it was on to our Xmas social where there was lots of merriment and celebrations. We have had an excellent year at GoodGym Bexley and as we reflected over the achievements we all raised our glasses 🍷. Sarah is very near to completing her 500 good deeds - wow what an awesome achievement! Massive well done to her!

Johnny won the GG quiz and Lisa came second! Well done to them! We even got our dancing on Tik Tok!

We can't wait for the next party night!

We had a treemendous time decorating the trees at Parkview Care Home last night!

After some of us ran to the task from the sports centre, we met up with Andy, the care home activity co-ordinator, and the other GoodGymers.

We split into two groups in order to decorate the trees in different lounges, with the help of some of the residents. We had a lot of fun chatting with them and sorting through all the baubles.

In no time at all the trees were done and it was time for us to go.

Ho ho ho until next time ✨️!

As GoodGymers there's nothing we like more than starting a project and seeing it through to the end.

So last night's task was particularly satisfying, as we finished painting the Year 2 cloakroom at Holy Trinity Lamorbey Primary School - transforming the original scuffed yellow walls to a clean cream, over three separate visits.

As we rollered and brushed, there was plenty of chatter with Jane, the school's vice principal. For added entertainment, Jane showed us her favourite entry from a recently-unearthed school punishment book. Dating from December 1932:

Frightening small children with a dead rat: 2 strokes on the hand.

Eek, hopefully the only strokes on our record are our painting brush strokes!

We'll be back helping at the school next month - check the sessions listing and come and join us!