After finishing our donation sorting session at the Community Hospice, we headed out to make the most of the lovely morning and use up the last of Discover Welling's Welling Sparkle stickers. With the High Street already covered in our group session last Wednesday, we aimed for the busiest side streets to add a bit more festive cheer to the lamp posts.

It didn’t take long — and it was a great way to spread some Christmas spirit around town!

This morning we were back at the Community Hospice warehouse in Welling, sorting through bag after bag of donated clothes.

Each bag gets emptied, checked, and sorted. Anything not suitable for resale is set aside as rags, which still earn the Hospice a small payment per bag. Everything that can be given a second life is carefully separated into women’s and men’s winter clothing, children’s clothes, textiles, shoes and bags, summer wear, higher-value branded items, and seasonal outfits. It's all eventually dispatched to the Hospice's shops across Bexley and Greenwich.

There are always surprises to be found. This time, our favourite finds included a collection of children’s sunglasses (complete with a random pair of swimming goggles!), some dramatic black-and-white high-heeled platform shoes, and a hooded Halloween cape that was reminiscent of the recent finale of The Traitors!

James from the Hospice team was on hand to help us decide what to do with the more puzzling items that didn’t seem to fit anywhere. He also happily joined us for a team photo — complete with a set of bridesmaids’ posies that are looking for a new home.

We'll be back again soon - look out for the listings and come along to see what treasures of your own you can find.

Tonight’s task was all about spreading the word about the Welling Sparkle ✨ — the town’s festive Christmas market organised by Discover Welling — by putting up promotional stickers along the High Street to help get everyone excited about the event!

After welcoming Hannah and Paul to their very first GoodGym session, we did a quick warm-up then set off on a 1.3k chatty run to meet the rest of the gang at our first lamp post rendezvous.

With the supermoon glowing above 🌕 and the distant popping of fireworks 🎆 (it is the 5th of November, after all!), we split into two groups to cover both sides of the road. It wasn’t meant to be a race, but a little friendly competition emerged over which team could finish their side first!

Along the way, it was lovely to chat with a few curious passersby who asked about the Welling Sparkle.

Seventy-eight lamp posts later, it was mission accomplished! After a brisk walk back to Crook Log with lots of chatting, we wrapped up another fun and productive evening.

We’ll be back in Welling next week for more lamp post duty — taking down the Remembrance poppies. Hope to see you there!