33 of Camden's finest helped Skip Garden with some gardening and we leafleted for Green Gym & Kentish Town City Farm

Welcome along to Antonia whose first group run it was last night - lovely to have you along.

In the news this week:

1. Well done to Shirin who hit 50 Good Deeds last week! Woop woop!
2. Also a massive well done to Sophie and Steve who represented GG at Manchester Marathon recently, both achieving under 4 hours.
3. This Sunday is the London Marathon and GoodGym has various cheering squads out and about - have a look here. Myself and 20+ other GoodGymers are running - come along and cheer us on!

Chris' Leaflet Telegram:

This week were leafleting for Green Gym who run local gardening projects in Camden and Kentish Town City Farm who run programs for people 60+ in the local community.

Sunset running

We headed up to Kentish Town. Bumped into Jess (Sophie's mate) on the way there on her bike. Split into two groups, tackled the areas marked on the map around Kentish Town, working our way back down to Castlehaven. Pritesh was at the back, Steve gave a leaflet to some corner lads. Stop.

Skip Garden Report by PB:

We headed over to Skip Garden, through a busy Granary Square (it was like it was the first day of summer or something). Upon our arrival we met Chief Gardener Emma who explained our jobs:

1. Folding up and loading the yurt onto a van to be moved to the Canada Water site - this provides lots more space in the Garden for activities!
2. Shovelling soil into small bags so to be easily used around the garden to feed the plants & flowers
3. Moving the compost ridan out of the way - it's unfortunately broken and will be removed soon, so no more ridan fun.
4. Moving very heavy pots from inside to outside
5. Watering the plants - they need feeding

RIP Ridan

After we'd taken a group picture we headed for a run on the sunny canal with two options on the way back, short with Frances or long with me.

I am recovering from London Marathon next week so Pritesh is in charge and you're going to Antrim Allotments - sign up here.

PB out.

26 GoodGymers ran 6.3km and helped Scope Charity Shop in Camden on our 5th birthday!

Welcome along to newbies Harriet and Rob. Lovely to have you along!

It was GG Camden's 5th birthday last night, pretty amazing how much good and running we've done over the last 5 years. Here is to the next 5!

In the news this week:

1. We are having a big old party for GG Camden's Birthday next Thursday at the Skip Garden - please sign up by Sunday if you'd like to come :)
2. It's GG Monthly Drinks this Thursday - we've got a pub booked in this pub - link.
3. The GG Olympics has been announced for Saturday 30th June at Parliament Hill Track - represent Camden and keep the trophy ours!

After an active warm up we headed 1km north via Royal College Street to help Scope Camden Charity Shop - a NEW TASK! This amazing charity describes itself as a charity that exists to make this country a place where disabled people have the same opportunities as everyone else. Until then, we’ll be here.

This was probably one of the most organised tasks we've ever had with complete instructions and numbers for everyone.

25 people + 30 minutes of good = 12.5 hours of work!

We covered the three floors of the shop covering the following jobs (and there was a lot to do):

• Chris hoovered all three floors!
• A team led by Rosie sorted donations into piles and bags
• Thomas cleaned wooden displays
• Beth sorted shoes and bags
• Freya and Linda cleaned the kitchen surfaces and cups
• Harriet mopped and cleaned the bathroom
• Sophie and Frances wiped and cleaned windows on various floors
• Chris smoothly sorted three racks of ladies' clothes
• Morag measured and sorted men's jeans/trousers
• Sarah and Sarah cleaned and wiped down the stairways
• Liz, Hayley and a full team sorted, labelled and gunned newly donated clothes

Everyone did amazingly and smashed through the tasks at hand. So much work done in such a short period of time!

We headed to Regents Park for a 1km time trial and a longer route home.

See you next week for gardening fun and our birthday celebrations!

PB out

34 GoodGymers ran between 4-10km making beds for the homeless, gardening for St Mary's & leafleting for Abbey

Cooorrrr, lots of people - glad we had 3 tasks! Welcome to newbies - Alex, Ana, Julia, Pierre, Jonathan and Charlotte - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. Last night it was Hayley's 50th GOOD DEED - WOOP WOOP! Hayley has been coming to GG Camden since 2016 and we really appreciate her amazing efforts :)
2. TONIGHT there is GG Monthly Drinks in Holborn at the Square Pig - Pritesh will be leading the party with puns, facts and probably some fiction! See you there :)
3. In JUNE there is a trip to the Lakes for some races and good old GG fun! Full details here

Right onto to what we actually did last night, we had three amazing tasks in our wonderful Camden, helping;

• Abbey Community Centre
• St Mary's Flats
• C4WS & American International Church

Report #1 by Pritesh at Abbey:

Eleven of us went along to help the wonderful Abbey Community Centre. It's a long old run up towards Kilburn but we were all keen to keep a good pace to stave off the cold. We were rewarded with a stunning view of central London at the top of Primrose Hill, all the lights twinkling in the cold clear night.

Stunning!

Arriving at the centre we were tasked with delivering flyers to the two tower blocks opposite - Snowman and Casterbridge - to let the residents know about the community cafe that runs every Saturday at the centre.

We split into teams and spent 15 minutes delivering throught the blocks and finishing off any spare leaflets to the houses in the surrounding area. We got everything done in the time and then made our way back to Somers Town with a quick stop for a group shot too!

Report #2 by PB at St Mary's:

Eleven of us headed to St Mary's Flats, a local community in Somers Town that we've been helping for over 4 years. After a 1.4km loop we met Jon who explained the main task was to de-litter an area of plants and re-compost it. Dragging the compost bag from one end of the estate to the other we got to work.

We split into two groups to de-litter across the estate, mainly focusing on cigarette butts, dead leaves and debris. After 20 minutes we'd de-littered both areas, composted and watered the flower bed.

Upon reaching Granary Square we did some conditioning, including:

• Calve raises
• Single leg squats
• Circuit routine - press up, mountain climber x2, jump & squat

We then met Frances' group and did our monthly time trial with some quick times in the cold weather!

Report #3 about Frances at C4WS:

IT'S FRANCES BIRTHDAY, she led the run and it was the best of times. There were 17 guest beds to make + 2 over night staff beds. With a team of 12 people they got the work done really really quickly - efficient! Also there was a cat that Frances seems to have spent most of her time with, haha.

Here is Rosie's haiku about our weekly task at the shelter:

We are making beds

For the homeless in Camden

First the mattresses

Sheets, duvets, pillowcases

Well done all, lots of good done for Camden!

Sign up for next week here, we have a NEW TASK helping GROUNDWORK!

PB out.

31 GoodGymers ran between 5-8km to help Camden Society paint and C4WS make beds

Hey, hello, whatup - that was fun wasn't it! Brilliant night of great people, fun fitness and GOOD tasking. Welcome to newbies - Matt, Amy, Emily, Zahava and Imogen who joined us for the first time last night - lovely to have you along!

In the news this week:

1. There is a GoodGym Monthly Social next Thursday at the Square Pig in Holborn, come along it will be full of puns, fun and Pritesh...
2. Well done Beth Hoskins (who started at GG Camden and is basically one of ours) who was the first person ever to reach 500 Good Deeds in GoodGym, she was sent a letter by the Prime Minister and Huffington Post wrote a cool article about her

After an active warm up in the cold January air we split into our teams and got 'gooding'. Chris took a team of 10 to help C4WS at the American International Church make beds for the homeless, over January and March each year we send a team of 10 people weekly to help the shelter with this task - saving them lots of time and effort.

Camden Legend Sophie Hedges wrote a cool haiku about the task:

American Church

Bed for the night, basic right

Fold corners with care

We are going to have a different member each week do a haiku about the bed making - it's an incredibly important task but it's hard to write 10 normal reports on it. Chris' team made quick work of the beds and then ran up to Kentish Town to join us for a last minute cleaning job - smashing 8km overall!

Camden Society Report by PB:

A team of 20 ran to Kentish Town to go help Camden Society, it was 2.5km up there and everyone kept a good pace to our NEW TASK. The Camden Society runs services across London and Oxfordshire. With a reputation for creativity, innovation and enterprise they generate new opportunities for people with disabilities to achieve greater equality. All their services are person-centred, supporting people to develop their lives in whatever ways they choose.

This fantastic charity have 10 sites across London, including 8 cafes, their Head Office and a site which sends out our GoodGym t-shirts! These are all run and serviced by people with learning difficulties - amazing!

Steve is actually an artist

Our tasks for the evening were as follows:

• John and Laurence cleaned the shop windows; front, back and around
• A team of 5 cleaned and scrubbed the walls, doors and services on the downstairs kitchen
• A team of 4 sanded and painted the hallway
• A team of 3 sanded and painted and disabled toilet

Amazing work all! We stayed for 45 minutes and got tons done. Now joined by Team Chris we ate some flapjacks, took a group pic and headed home for a stretch.

Sign up here for next week, three tasks - Abbey, St Mary's & C4WS!

PB out