When our planned task fell through at the last minute, 11 GoodGym Greenwich runners and walkers proved that adaptability is one of our greatest strengths. Rather than call it a night, we grabbed the litter pickers and headed around Charlton for an impromptu community litter pick.

Before setting off, our icebreaker question was: "What's your favourite thing about Greenwich?" Answers ranged from its beautiful parks and riverside walks to the markets, history, community spirit and, of course, GoodGym itself. It was a lovely reminder of why we're all so keen to help keep the borough looking its best.

The evening was also packed with milestones. A huge welcome to Cathy, who completed her very first GoodGym task, hopefully the first of many! Meanwhile, massive congratulations to our Norwegian pun-King Ivar, who celebrated an incredible 300th GoodGym task!

We split up to tackle litter hotspots around Charlton, collecting bags full of cans, bottles, wrappers and plenty of the usual unexpected finds. Every bag filled was another small but visible improvement to the neighbourhood.

A big thank you to everyone who embraced the change of plans with such positivity. Another lovely evening spent amongst the rubbish!

Until next time!

Rachel 😁

This week at Charlton Manor Primary School, our task coincided with England playing in the semi finals of the World Cup so our numbers were depleted but we were a mighty few that turned up, happy to not to have to pretend to be interested in the match! Our ice breaker question tonight was to share three emojis that describe our day and so ensued lots of comments on frustrating meetings, long hours in front of the computer and generally looking a bit bug eyed 🫪🫪🫪 No wonder we love coming out to GoodGym every wednesday for that mid-week boost! ❤️

Our task for the evening was tidying up in the nursery garden, trimming the trees (not the threes, the trees 🌳) with some very stiff and rusty shears which sounded like a they were coming to the end of their life and gave us some laughs. Threes trimmed, and we set about clearing the little path, and creating more of a canopy and before long we heard the cheers for kick off which was our signal to be off so off we went our ways running back to our homes a little bit fitter, a little bit happier and a little bit more of a do-gooder!

Until next time 😁

Rachel

On Sunday, Khai and I discovered the lovely Bostall Gardens, where the friends of group had invited us to help out at their Parksfest family fun day. And a very fun day it turned out to be with hundreds of families out enjoying the music, dance, tennis and of course the bouncy castle at a very reasonable pound per child for the entire day!

We were busy giving out leaflets at the gate before helping out with the raffle and bouncy castle collection - by far the most popular activity!

I'm sure we'll be back at another point - thanks for a lovely day Khai!

Until next time 👋

Rachel

On Saturday morning we arrived at the Maryon Park Community Garden, ready to get stuck into our task for this month which included varnishing the fence and hosing down the toys in the kids area. In no time we were teamed up and getting splashed, muddy and varnishy getting the jobs done as well as lots of chatting between ourselves and with the lovely Tim and Edna who were hospitable as always, providing snacks and drinks after our exertions. I say "our", but Arthur and I mainly chatted to Edna and read books so I'm not sure I should get a good deed for that 😅

We left with a gift of mint from the herb garden for our meals and off to the rest of our weekends.

Great job team, we'll be back next month!

Coming up:

On wednesday we're back at Hervey Road: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/gardening-at-hervey-road-sports-field-6f25b74e-293a-42d3-bce6-72d39ae8195f

Saturday 11th: Helping at CCRA's community day: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/help-out-at-ccra-s-annual-community-day

Sunday 12th: Clean up Charlton: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/clean-up-charlton-3ff675ce-0b0d-462b-965c-49c86a8cf326 And Bostall Woods Family Fun Day (time slots): https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/help-out-at-bostall-gardens-family-fun-day

Until next time!

Rachel