Last night 9 Good Doers walked and ran 3km to help Tunstall Nursery fill up the sand pit and tidy up the outside play area.

We welcomed Rachel and Lucia for their first runs with Good Gym today after hearing about us through their work place. It was a lovely sunny evening and we warmed up by each suggesting a different exercise to do. Feeling ready, we headed off on our gentle 1.5km run to meet the walkers and staff at the Nursery. They were very pleased to see us as there were two big bags of sand which needed to be moved to the sand pit at the back of the Nursery.

We split into two teams with one group sweeping up the old sand and stones from the play area to make a safe surface for the children to play on. And it is true sand really does get everywhere! After a lot of hard work sweeping the play area was transformed, looking clean and tidy for the children to play in (and most likely make some more mess!) tomorrow. It was a very enjoyable task and therapeutic to see the difference we could make with our brooms. The other team took up the shovels and began moving the sand from the large bags in the car park into the wheel barrow and then round the back to sand pit. A definite arm work out! After a few run ins with some rather large spiders who had made the sand bags their home, there was soon an efficient system in place and the sand pit was full in no time.

Looking around it was clear to see the work we had done! Esther was even able to show us how a planter we had moved on our last task there was now full of potatoes and strawberries the children are growing.

Next week, we will be heading to Park Hill to give some help putting up some more of the Peace Poles. Sign up Here to take part!

On Tuesday we ran in the rain to St Augustine’s to assist Sue.

As customary prior to us arriving Sue would send me an email with all the tasks she have for us to complete. Today’s email;

Dear Conroy, looking forward to seeing you all again this evening. Usual mix of heavy and light options. Woodchip delivery in the car park needs moving including loading into some ton bags and sweeping up afterwards. Lighter options include moving some smaller bags to spots around the garden, more edging / trimming the grass edges and sweeping the car park at the end. There's also a small dead tree to cut down / remove and a couple of smaller bushes to dig out. Lots of options as usual. Sadly I'm on crutches so not able to do much. Grrrr. Sue.

Dear Conroy and all you wonderful people, thank you for your work last night. I can't thank you enough. Such a relief to have the car park as good as cleared and sustainably packed mulch for the future. On June 27th 10.45 the garden at St Augustine's will be assessed by RHS. Sue have requested to have one representative from GoodGym Croydon.

On Tuesday we ran 1km to assist the staff in the Crisis Charity shop. Unfortunately it wasn’t a visit to help them sort their donations or restack the clothing rails for the new season. Sadly they were closing down the Croydon Branch and they had movers coming on Wednesday to take the stuff to a storage facility, and they would then be disseminated to other Crisis Charity Shops.

We welcomed back a familiar face, Audrey had been a regular runner with us in the past however after starting her family time wasn’t as freely available as it was before, but with the little one not so little anymore she is begging to claw back some time and decided to come out with us. Welcome back Audrey.

When we arrived we were greeted by Jill and Ryan, who had been there all day packing and moving boxes. They were about to hit the wall but they were happy to see 12 smiling faces eager to put in some work and get them over the finish line. Jill/Ryan explained that they had some boxes, shelves mannequins and odd bits and pieces in the basement to be taken up to the ground floor. There were still books on the shelves that needed to be taken off and boxed up. To them it seemed like an endless task as there were only two of them trying to get it done all day. We divide the group into movers and packers and within an hour we had emptied the basement packed all the books into boxes and move everything closer to the door for t the movers arrival on Wednesday. Jill and Ryan was really excited about the 12 hours we were able to cram into an hour.

We said our goodbyes and as it was the last Tuesday of the month we headed off to Box Park for a few burgers and drinks.

We later received the following message

Just want to say Thank you again to you and the team for all your support on Tuesday evening. Ryan and I really appreciated all the help.

Next Tuesday we’ll be heading to Park Hill to plant our peace pole are you coming along?

Last night 9 Good Gym runners laced up their shoes and headed out on a 1.5km run to help provide warm clothes to those in need at the Croydon Refuge Day Centre.

We were joined by Good Gym tourist Miriam for her first run with Croydon. We warmed up to keep away the winter chill and then headed down the road to the Croydon Refugee Day Centre. We were met by Simon who showed us the latest tasks for us including sorting through the recent donations of coats and jumpers to be sized, labelled and hung up on the racks. Half of us also set to work seperating the summer and winter babies and children's clothes so that the warm winter clothes are easiest to access. We knew we had been working hard when Simon came around with a very welcome Kit Kat break! Once we had finished returned all the rails to the back room, leaving enough space in the main hall for a quick game of Granny's Footsteps!

Good Gym announced yesterday their partnership with Raleigh Bikes and there will be more Good News on that coming soon!