Hello Brenda, Thank you for volunteering at Avery Hill parkrun on 2026-01-03

Joined The Friends for their monthly litterpick in Maryon Park.

It’s a frosty and cold New Year’s morning kicking off the 223th Charlton park run. Two runners were celebrating their 100th and 250th milestones. Julian, Marta snd myself were volunteering for various roles supporting the event. The cold weather did not affect new comers and regulars as we all knew that we felt much better after a 5k park run to start our day.

We had a flat tyre and while waiting for the lovely RAC man to replace it for us we thought we'd get rid of the litter on the side of the road, handily we have a few pickers and gloves in the car so we spent a happy half hour filling a bag.

It’s a bright but very cold Christmas morning but 254 like minded runners/walkers travelled afar due to no public transport joining Charlton park run. The 221th park run was decorated with lots of festive clothing with families, young children and dogs.

Today’s park run was celebrating a number of runners 25th, 50th and 250th milestones. We were pleased to see a good portion of new comers and over 30 runners got their personal best, I wondered if it was related to the cold weather?

Without the volunteers special Christmas Day park run and the weekly park run will not be possible. We are thankful for the support and hope to inspire others who can start volunteering. A particularly thanks to one of the runners who shared the home made ginger cake to keep us going.

Let's hope so anyway! Today, five of us gathered in Charlton to distribute the rest of the leaflets to publicise the opportunity to buy the White Swan pub. Ivar, still sporting his sore hand from Wendesday night's leafleting session, came back for more - such is his appetite for doing good...and winning top spot in his workplace volunteer league table 😎

We soon got through the last few hundred leaflets we had. Fingers crossed enough can be raised to secure the purchase of the pub!

Thanks to you all and wishing you a very Happy Christmas! See you for more good deeds in 2026.