Today two of the Taskforce team attended the Kingston & Merton EXPO25. It was a brilliant chance to get face-to-face with numerous businesses, organisations, and individuals to chat all things GoodGym in both Kingston and Merton. The energy was great, and we had so many positive conversations about how we Do Good and Get Fit.

It was great to see some familiar faces, but even better to meet a few people who had heard about us and some who had experienced the team helping with local jobs. Sharing first-hand stories about the difference our runners and volunteers have made reinforced the positive impact we have on the community. We are looking forward to doing more as there were lots of opportunities for follow up

Tonight we headed to Raynes Park Station to assist FORPS with a monumental task: shifting two bags of topsoil for their planters, along with some essential pruning.

We knew the topsoil challenge was steep - on previous visits it took ten people who could access the platform to shift one bag, in 30 mins! Tonight, with half the hands on the platform and the rest of the team helping outside, we had our work cut out!

Challenge accepted. Everyone flew into action, carrying bucket after heavy bucket, while keeping to safety protocols (no running etc), and avoiding disruption to passengers disembarking. Despite a huge effort and an extra ten minutes, we had to concede defeat with a small amount of soil remaining.

A massive welcome to Alia who completed her first mission, we hope to see you again soon.

After helping pack up we headed to the pub to drown our sorrows knowing we gave that topsoil our best shot.

Great work, team! We may have been defeated by the soil, but we definitely won the battle for community spirit, marking our one-year anniversary with cake and celebrations.

A chilly morning didn't deter us from heading out to assist Ms S with some much-needed garden jobs.

We put the cold weather behind us and got straight to work, tackling the weeds on the patio followed by pruning various shrubs to significantly improve and clear the garden space.

Shout-out and massive congratulations to Rachael for completing her very first Mission in Merton! We made a visible difference, leaving the area feeling much neater and brighter - hope this is the first of many missions to come.