GoodGym Kingston smashed out another session at the amazing Growbaby this evening. After we had all run, walked or cycled there, we were greeted with a long list of tasks to tick off so we got straight to it.

Tom, Sabir and Dave were upstairs sorting out the bookshelves, toy boxes and board game cupboard, Claire, Mel, Skyla and Chloe were tasked with sorting out the huge amount of donations that were dropped off by DLAG at the weekend - nappies, wipes and babyfood to give out to the local families in need. Jana amassed a load of clothing to hang out on the rail for the families to browse when the charity was open the following day. Rachel kept us all in check and made sure the jobs were done well and within the time!

A big welcome to Skyla and Chloe on their first good deed! Lovely to have you along and hope to see you soon.

It felt like winter rather than the start of spring as a few hardy souls braved the rain to help out at one of our semi-regular tasks at Kingsgate Church’s student foodbank.

Sarah had a few things on the agenda for us and Emma, Emily and Jade were quickly away with cleaning fridges and storage areas on one of the church’s many levels.

Dave and Tom spent the session assembling a new set of shelves, completion of which they were definitely more impressed by than others, while Beth and Rachel organised and checked best-before dates of new products that had been donated.

Everyone chipped in for the final effort of lifting new trays of donations into position, including perhaps the largest collection of tinned peas in existence anywhere in the world!

On a pretty miserable evening, our presence was very much appreciated in what turned out to be a good fun task.

Tuesday's group run got us up the hill to Surbiton Library where we met the walkers and the cyclists. A great turn out which was much appreciated as we had some heavy work to do. The ivy in the planters had got 2/3 foot deep and the poor plants were trying hard as they could but were struggling to get through the mass of roots and stems. It was our job to get rid of as much ivy as possible and free the plants.

With great gusto we grabbed loppers, secateurs and mattox and got to work. It took great effort to give the planters a haircut but we really got into it with our head torches in the dark. Once we shorn the first planter within an inch of its life we split into two teams with the first team continuing to get out as much of the root mass as possible and the second to start the process again with the other planter. So many hands did indeed make light work and we started the tidy up process well within the hour. Three massive sacks of green waste was produced from the two planters and 11 very delighted GoodGym volunteers!

We are looking forward to the next session where we empty out more of the planters so we can refill with good soil and then the planting can be done. Join us for the next session at Surbiton Library

We had another great evening helping out at Full Cycle, an independent, non-profit community bike project. We had the great honour of celebrating Emily's 100th good deed and we thanked her for her amazingness. Well done, Emily!

Eight GoodGymers got stuck in to the tasks Callum had lined up for us. Emma rolled up punctured inner tubes for recycling, Tom, Sabir and Rachel made rags to clean the bikes, and over the course of evening, together with Jade, Emily, Jo and Dave, we all helped to clean nine children’s bikes ready for resale or donating to children in need in the community. This might sound a quick and easy task but as anyone with a well-used bike will know, mud and grit can get in every nook and cranny! By using the three bike repair stands we were able to hang up each bike making all the nooks and crannies easier to reach! Hopefully we did a thorough job and can be invited back to help out again!

We all went in different directions from Full Cycle, walking, cycling and running, with a cool down at the Quaker Centre for those of us who wanted to head in that direction. Lovely to see Jo again - who now splits her time between Goodgym Bristol and GoodGym Kingston! 👏

As a group we get head over wheels running - or pedalling - over to Full Cycle, an independent, not for profit group, to help them get ahead on a few time consuming tasks.

This week the many hands of nine GoodGymers made light work checking and labelling dozens of inner tubes. Jas, Tom and Sabir focused on removing the inner tubes from a pile of tyres while Luke, Rachel, Claire, Julie, Dave and Emma pumped and deflated dozens of inner tubes waiting for our attention, sorting out the good from bad. It may not sound like a significant job but with the air tight ones all rolled up, labelled and stored in different crates for the different sizes, the maintenance team will now be able to easily reach for the right inner tube to fit in a bike they can sell second hand or give to someone in need in Kingston. And don’t worry about the punctured inner tubes - they all get recycled.

A run back along Kingston Road saw us back at the Quaker Centre, where our cool down gave us an opportunity to check who’ll be attending the range of other great tasks lined up for this week.

A thoroughly wet and miserable day was brightened up by a morning visit to see Miss A. We both have an interest in horses and horse racing so we had plenty to talk about, but she is somebody anyone would enjoy chatting to about a host of other passions that she has. I learned some new things and I think she appreciated the visit