Steve Lee

The plan is to meet up outside the Elizabeth House Food Hub, and after a short warm up, health and safety briefing and a warm welcome, we will run together to Highbury Quadrant Estate.

Task Location

361 - 387 Highbury Quadrant, N5 2TB

If you are not planning to run with us, our arrival time at Highbury Quadrant Estate will be 7.10 pm.

After our session, we will aim to arrive back at The Elizabeth House Food Hub for 8.30pm at the latest.

Things to Note

We are delighted to announce that we now have a bag drop and bathroom facilities for our group runs. Thank you to Elizabeth House Food Hub for accomodating us!

Please allow enough time to drop bags, as we will be running at 7pm sharp!

A huge welcome to Marc on his very first good deed! Be sure to give him a cheer if you’re reading this :)

Marc and Steve arrived on a clear, cold Sunday morning to help Mrs B clear her back decking of leaves and winter debris, and tidy up her lovely planter pots.

Mrs B was really welcoming, and made us both a perfect cup of tea as we started work. There’s a lovely memorial to her husband who used to look after the back garden, and she was delighted to see it being cared for again. Missions like these are just as special for the difference we make to a garden or room, as they are for our host making us welcome and having a natter.

We got to work moving some of the furniture around and sweeping up fallen leaves, filling several bing bags worth and keeping the decks nice and clear. Pro Tip: We took a photo of the positions of all the pot plants before removing, sweeping and replacing them. Steve helped Marc get up to speed on everything from group runs, coach runs and the GoodGym Race Team (https://www.goodgym.org/race-team) as we chatted about muddy cross-country races back at school, running in the pandemic and keeping active to stave off injury.

After carrying out the bags of garden waste to be collected, Mrs B thanked us and wished us a lovely rest of our weekends. We wish her the same too.

Age UK Islington has asked us to help Ms J to move a sofa which is in the way of her computer table which means she cannot access her laptop. There are many things on the sofa and they will have to be taken off to move it and put back when it is in a final position. Ms J smokes and has cats and the home is quite cluttered.

On a slightly misty and chilly evening, a group of spirited GoodGymmers gathered at one of GoodGym Islington’s regular volunteering haunts, Thornhill Square Gardens. Alison, Emily, Katie, Sally, Steve C and Steve L plus GoodGym founder Ivo were seeking to combat the Blue Monday Blues (it's a thing) by helping out the resident’s association who look after this beautiful park.

Normally, Anna is our host who helps to distribute the tools and allocate tasks, but tonight we were joined by local resident Justin, who helped oversee things and was really grateful for our help. Similarly, this activity is normally an occasional Monday night group run led by our glorious leader Simon, who unfortunately is feeling less than glorious and under the weather with a positive covid test (get well soon, Simon!)

Our crew quickly got to work digging into a mountain of mulch that was menthol and sweet-smelling, steaming and hot-to-the-touch. It made for many an atmospheric photo, and probably kept us a little warmer on a wintry night. Wheelbarrows loaded, we darted across the dark park to the rose beds as a long caravan of headtorches and those reflective bits that they put all over running clothes. Doubtless amusing for any residents watching nearby, but decidedly bemusing for a small fleet of terriers who let their feelings be known during their evening walk with their humans.

In a short space of time we managed to make a significant dent in Mulch Mountain, blanketed the rose beds which will protect them through winter, and learned that there is no ‘i’ in steam.

We said our goodbyes and wished each other a great week (you too, reader!) and walked, ambled, jogged and ran off into the evening. Keep an eye out for more sessions in your local area, and hope to see you soon!

GG Islington