It was another rainy Monday evening in Lewisham and a smaller than normal group of Lewisham’s finest arrived in the foyer of Glassmill ready for an evening of doing good!

It was a quiet weekend for news apart from a birthday parkrun and a community mission at Crofton Books, putting up the bunting reading for Croft Fest.

We headed outside into the rain and played a game of “everybody’s it” (after some interesting explaining of how the game worked - I promise these make sense in my head) involving squats and starjumps. Then it was off to Crofton Books, following virtually the same route as last week’s group run to Beecroft. Thanks for backmarking Chloe!

Once we arrived at Crofton Books, Jason began explaining the tasks that needing completing and wheeled out a suitcase and boxes full of books (full of classics) to be sorted and priced.

The tasks for the evening:

• cleaning the shelves of the bookshop
• organising various sections in the bookshop
• clearing/raking outside
• sorting and pricing the boxes of books
• saving/sorting/separating some books that had been water damaged from a leak in the ceiling
• organising Jason’s secret area of books/office area

It’s always a lovely task that everyone can get stuck into and there’s always lots of chatter.

As always some classic books were found including the Good Housekeeping Guide to Easy Entertaining in which everything looking slightly undercooked in the pictures and a bargain to cook. And a book on dogs which was given to me to find the animal section which I’m afraid I never did find!

It was time for a tough decision - extra time getting the tasks done or hill repeats in the rain....hill repeats was the clear winner!! I joke, everyone suddenly had lots of jobs to complete!

It was time to round everyone up and get in place for a group photo, after multiple group photos with multiple phones, we headed out of Crofton Books into some misty rain!

With nearly everyone except 5 of us peeling off to go home on our way back to Glassmill and me hitting my elbow on a bin and Martin falling over a bench (just as we were saying how these benches are so hidden), we finally made it back to Glassmill to stretch and near enough of one piece even if down on numbers.

Big thanks to Sarah for bringing the lovely cookies, they were thoroughly enjoyed by everyone!

This evening there is a community mission at GRACE, sorting clothes as they have a large shipment that needs sorting to be sent out. I can’t wait to hear what delightful (or undelightful) things you find in the donated bags!

It was the wettest group in Lewisham since the time we visited GRACE and ran back in a thunderstorm, I’d checked throughout the day and a lot of people had signed up for the celebratory evening but then I stood in Glassmill wondering if it would just be me running to Beecroft.

I should have had more faith, of course people began to arrive and not just from Lewisham, but from Sheffield and Stockport (lovely to have some more fellow Northerners visit) and everyone braving the rain to do good!!

After a quick run through of the news from the past week: GoodGym Croydon Parkrun takeover at Bethlem Parkrun, Community Missions and Bradley winning a 10 mile race, it was time to head out into the rain and warm up. I was so excited about having enough people to use tennis balls in the warm up that my description of the warm up was so confusing but after some rearranging of people and re-explaining what on Earth we were doing, we got there and warmed up we set off on the uphill (slight incline if you’re from Sheffield) and arrived at Beecroft before we knew it and slightly more soggier than when we left Glassmill.

Before we could get stuck into the amazing cakes that a parent at the school had made for us (thank you so much!!), a couple of tasks needed completing:

• moving bags of sand to the front of the playground to an area that is going to be made into a Peace Garden
• creating a water maze using pipes that will be attached to the side of the shed (photo's included for those who don't know what one of them is - I didn't at first!)
• hanging bells in order, in the Sensory Garden area so the children can learn to play some songs (mainly Christmas Carols)

*Garden forks earn popping corks! *

Once the tasks had been completed it was time to celebrate all the hard work that has been done since July 2018. Whilst we tucked into cupcakes and Prosecco, we watched a presentation that showed the transformation of the area and the various stages and all the people involved - there were a couple of speeches as well.

Everything tidied away and we began our run back to Glassmill, I switched up the route on the way bag to run past Hilly Fields but at the last moment decided against hill repeats as everyone was pretty drenched by now and time wasn’t on our side. Instead we continued back to Glassmill with a sprint finish for those who wanted to and inside to the warmth to kind of dry off a bit and stretch (thanks Amber!).

Thanks to Oli for backmarking and providing the excellent puns!

A big thank you to everyone for their efforts with various tasks (digging, wheelbarrowing, painting, more wheelbarrowing, shovelling and missing out on the heavy duty tools!!) over the past 18 months, it’s amazing to see what we’ve helped achieve, from groups runs to missions that have taken place at Beecroft. A huge thank you to Gemma for all her efforts in getting the project off the ground and being there on Monday evenings organising and encouraging us in all weathers!

Next week, we are off to Crofton Books which is a lovely indoor task!

Let’s start off with Lewisham news (partly in case you didn’t hear me over whatever was going on in Glassmill), there was so much of it, we had:

• GoodGym’s 10th Birthday Party at City Hall which was a wonderful evening of different areas being all together alongside community groups that we support - there may have been a few tears during the speeches.
• Hilly Fields Parkrun 7th birthday, the course was ran in reverse and to celebrate making it round the wrong way, there was cake at the end!
• Marsha Phoenix Relay at Hilly Fields which was raising money for a fantastic local cause, well done Tom/Oli/Jacqueline for taking part and Molly for being the best cheerer!
• Vic also came first at a Parkrun in Italy and had her own personal marshal - WELL DONE!

We started the evening with a quick photo outside Glassmill with the absolutely huge GoodGym flag, that done and a quick selfie so I didn’t miss out, it was time for Amber to run through a quick warm up as we needed to head off promptly to maximise the time we’d have at the task.

We arrived at Dalmain Primary School and split into two groups, the bigger group/people with head torches tackling the wildlife garden across the road and a smaller group cutting back the bushes in a wildlife garden in the main playground to make it easier for the children to walk along the path.

Everyone got stuck into the task and after a bit of running back and forth between the two groups, I went to check on the tyres we’d painted in the summer and they are still looking wonderful.

The group in the main playground also removed some weeds around the edges whilst I went to round up the other group, only to find they’d found an assortment of random objects: a pickaxe, a lightbulb, a babygrow and then the usual litter (there was probably more to add to that list).

Whilst the cuttings where being taken over to compost pile in the wildlife garden, it was up to me to run around the playground like a superhero with the flag.

Back to being run leader and we all got in position for a group photo except the light kept going off and then my phone wasn’t ready, after about 5 attempts we got it! Time for the downhill back to Glassmill and a stretch (thanks Amber).

Next week we are off to Chelwood Nursery and there's various community missions happening this weekend:

• Wildcat Wilderness Chilli Festival on Saturday (and you get lunch for all your hard work)
• Manor Gardens on Sunday

Well done running up those hills this evening, everyone did great!

Everyone began gathering in Glassmill ready for one of our favourite tasks over at Wildcat Wilderness, welcome to the new faces at Lewisham last night, hope you enjoyed your evening of doing good!

There were lots of Lewisham people out and about running at the weekend, from Parkrun to Thames Path to Great North Run - well done everyone!!

After a longer than normal run over to Wildcat Wilderness, we were greeted by Maria at the gate, she had a number of tasks lined up for us in preparation of the Chilli Festival on 21st September.

Adam and Florence began delivering flyers to the surrounding roads to raise awareness of the upcoming festival and Wildcat Wilderness.

The rest of us went through to the outdoor kitchen and orchard area (first picking up tools) to began cutting back the weeds and brambles that had regrown over the summer. There was weed bashing, bramble digging and cutting back of brambles/nettles along the path.

We had 10 min to go and half of the flyering team hadn’t returned yet after wondering what I was actually meant to do if I lost someone (probably text Adele in a panic), I located them and the rest of the group had begun putting their tools back.

It’s getting dark pretty quickly now and it felt especially so in Wildcat last night! We all made our way out in the dark as one group ready for the group photo.

Before we knew it, we were back at Glassmill after a sprint finish and ready to stretch, big thanks Amber for leading everyone through the stretches.

Don’t forget:

• GoodGym 10 year Celebrations at City Hall on Thursday (check recent GoodGym emails for details)
• Hilly Fields 7th birthday on Saturday and running the course in reverse
• Wildcat Wilderness Chilli Festival community mission on

Next week we are off the Dalmain Primary School, it’s a slightly longer run again but a really fun task that makes up for it.

All credit for the pun goes to Stephen