Back again supporting the wonderful Little ARK team - this time with their busy wreath-making workshops. It's that time of year so making the most of every chance to get creative 😀.

With surplus fabric scraps aplenty and the clever idea of utilising old coat hangers for the base, it was a creative buzz with facilitating everyone to ensure they had the materials and guidance they needed. Some created more than others 😉.

We both felt very inspired by the end, despite being almost out of fabric.

What a perfect morning to celebrate a milestone! We marked one year since launching GoodGym Merton by supporting our friends at Morden Parkrun.

The beautiful, crisp morning was ideal for getting out and doing good. Our team embraced various roles, from marshalling the course and handing out finish tokens to expertly managing the funnel. We had an absolute blast cheering on every single walker and runner including several members of the GoodGym team who took on the course themselves!

It was a brilliant, energetic way to celebrate a year of incredible community achievements. Cheers to many more years of getting fit and doing good in Merton!

Well done team and congratulations to Alex and Siobhan on their first Parkrun experience and welcome Siobhan (officially) to the team.

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.

The tranquil garden is looking lovely and we were able to see how the log work we did last time has been transformed into seating. Tonight we were tasked with painting the wooden planters green and gold, as well as moving logs and clearing some brambles. It was great to see Georgina, who popped by while doing a litter pick. With her arm on the mend, hopefully she will be back at sessions soon. The nights are drawing in, so we were working in darkness by the end of the task but hopefully the results will be brush-taking! Thanks to Maggie, who lives nearby, for kindly donating some post-session chocolate, meaning that team green and team gold were transformed into team mint and team orange.

It may have been threatening to tip it down but that didn't deter our trusty crew of GoodGymers from walking, running and cycling over to Beverley Park. The weeds have been running rampant since our visit a few months ago, so our job was to pull them out, then cover the ground with cardboard and top with mulch. It was a fantastic effort by everyone before the light faded. Jon kindly rounded off the evening by sharing a bara brith cake brought back from his trip to Wales. Yaki dah!