It was great to welcome Diana for a first GoodGym task, Charlie for a second, Šana who's no stranger to GoodGym, but new to us in Newham, and Kirsti, visiting from GoodGym Tower Hamlets and swapping choir practice for a spot of Crisis management.

We set off from Freaks and Geeks with Graham, Adam, Kirsti, Charlie and me, running down to the warehouse in the somewhat industrial part of Canning Town. We met Šana there, followed by Diana, while our host Chris was delayed in the logistical challenge of getting stock distributed across Crisis’ London shops. All was forgiven, though: Chris is such a passionate advocate for the amazing and much-needed work Crisis does, and his enthusiasm for the cause is infectious. It was a good reminder that, behind all the bags, cages and warehouse logistics, there’s a bigger purpose to what we were helping with.

Tonight’s task was getting Christmas stock ready to go out to the shops. That meant keeping up the proud (and occasionally questionable) GoodGym tradition of moving things from one place to another and then moving them back again. We moved a mountain of bags from one big pile into lots of separate piles. Then we moved some of those piles into cages. Then we moved the piles back again. Job done, and the warehouse is a little more ready for the beginnings of the festive rush.

With the bags sorted and the stock suitably shuffled, we called it a night. A satisfying bit of teamwork, some useful lifting, and another contribution to the work Crisis does supporting people experiencing homelessness.

We’ll be back on 24th November, and there may even be a bonus task or two on 28th November at a Crisis pop-up event on Savile Row. Apparently, donated designer clothing helped raise around £100,000 at the last event. It’s hard not to wonder who buys it all, apart from other celebrities and wealthy people. Perhaps the same designer jackets just do laps of the same circle of wardrobes...

If the pop-up task goes ahead, we could be helping load the fancy stuff in Canning Town, with a separate team on hand to unload it at the other end. Watch this space!

A big well done to everyone who came along and helped get those bags moving. Join us for the next round? See what else is coming up with GoodGym Newham — there’s always room for another pair of hands (and legs).

With Saturday's fête fast approaching, three GoodGymers joined forces with a group of dedicated church volunteers to help spruce up the grounds of Emmanuel Church.

The weather wasn't quite as kind as the forecast had suggested. What was supposed to be a light drizzle turned into something a little more persistent, but that didn't stop anyone getting stuck in. Armed with brooms, rakes and plenty of determination, we set about sweeping leaves and tidying the churchyard to make sure it was looking its best for the weekend's visitors.

Working alongside friends of the church, we cleared paths, gathered piles of fallen leaves and generally gave the outdoor spaces a much-needed autumn refresh. Despite the damp conditions, spirits stayed high and it was great to see everyone pitching in to help prepare for an important community event.

As with many successful GoodGym tasks, there was a reward waiting at the end. Once the work was done, we were welcomed inside for a generous spread of sandwiches, providing the perfect opportunity to warm up, chat and admire the results of our efforts.

A huge thank you to everyone who braved the rain to help out. Here's hoping the churchyard stays looking tidy and the fête enjoys much drier weather than we did! 🍂🥪☔

A small band this evening of Hilary, Rebecca and Nick - very much quality over quantity - met up at the Aquatic Centre (just about still light-ish), and navigated our way through the Olympic Park along the canal to find Ange waiting for us, with spades and wheelbarrows neatly parked...

The dune of sand(?) that we'd initially attacked back in July was our task for tonight (https://www.goodgym.org/v3/reports/leaps-and-mounds) - the dune had shrunk a bit since our last visit as Ange (with a few other smaller people helpers) had managed to get some of it moved to various parts of the playground over the summer, but there was still enough to keep us amused for a good hour.

With Hilary and Rebecca on shoveling duty and Nick on wheel barrowing, we soon established a chain gang that worked pretty well to get the sand shifted from outside of Ange's "office" to near the Big Ship where we slowly built a new dune...with only three of us on duty there were no tea breaks allowed in spite of occasional groans from one staff member whose shoulders were starting to complain.

When Ange comes out and compliments you on a job well done, you know you've done something pretty good, and at 8 we parked the spades and barrows - there's still quite a bit more to get moved, but we don't think you can long jump into what remains...which is real progress - and had a sociable run back to the Olympic Park along the canal, avoiding the occasional unlit pedestrian and bike rider along the way...

When I first walked into Mr S's flat I wasn't sure where the back stair case described in the mission listing was going to be...but all became clear when he invited me into the kitchen and showed me the access to the back door.

He needed this staircase cleared of random towels, plastic bags and other rubbish and dust that had accumulated there, and once I'd navigated the gate in the kitchen and a narrow bit of staircase to get all the way to the back door to open it, the task became a bit easier, especially when Mr S said I didn't need to move the pieces of wood, ladders or other tools and gardening equipment that were propped against the wall, and that I could sweep the dirt and dust down the stairs and straight out of the door! Everything else went into a heavy duty bin bag.

With that task complete, attention turned to changing a couple of light bulbs - for which thankfully Mr S had a suitably sized step ladder, even though it was still a bit of a reach, and the correct bulbs - a quick replacement in the living room and hallway, and Mr S's flat was infinitely brighter than when I'd first walked in.

Wow it gets dark early these days...very much a head torch lead litter picking session this evening with the Friends of Chandos Road, where our hosts Mark and Leela were pleased to see Rebecca, Ciarán, Tendai and Nick arrive ready to get picking.

The area we focused on was near the recently planted Flower Meadow, and for which (great news) the Friends of Chandos Road have secured additional funding to expand the meadow (for which they may well need some volunteer assistance to lay turf, plant seeds etc...watch this space).

With darkness now upon us, we split into smaller groups each with a bag and litter pickers and got going as best we could in all directions. A large pile of cigarette butts occupied Rebecca and her group for a long time, whilst the other group encountered the remnants of an extensive buffet and a lot of bottle lids which needed some effort to prise them out of the ground...

Before long we had three pretty full bags of rubbish, and so called it an evening - with litter pickers returned, and Rebecca kindly agreeing to take the rubbish bags to her nearest large bin on the way home, we were thanked by the team for our efforts and headed off into the darkness.

Next week we're at the Hackney Marshes Adventure Playground to help Ange with whatever she's got planned...it might involve sand, logs, bark or wheelbarrows...

Our (now regular) return to the Crisis Warehouse this evening to find out what Chris had in store for us - and as always he had a long to do list, and a seven strong group of willing volunteers keen to get their hands dirty, and as it turned out their shoulder, arms, hands and knees, always bend with the knees..., a pretty good workout.

Before we got there though, it was a warm welcome to first time GoodGymmer Charlie, and a hello again/welcome back to Rebecca - both of whom joined Graham, Hilary, Paul and Nick on the run from Freaks and Geeks to the warehouse, where we then met up with Irina.

After a quick briefing and intro from Chris, it was down to work, which tonight involved a lot of moving of cages full of sacks that had been delivered from the various Crisis Retails shops around London, and which contained clothing items that the shops had deemed no longer "sellable" on the rails due to the change from summer to winter, or that had simply not proved attractive to the buying public.

With Hilary and Charlie on lift duty, the rest of us were tasked with collecting the cages on the upper floor and parking them by the lift - at which point we headed downstairs to do the unloading and sorting into summer/winter cull, shop specific summer/winter keep, and various miscellaneous other bags which required a whole new categorisation and parking area.

Fair to say this kept us all very busy, doubly so when Chris opened the loading bay door to reveal a van full of more bags that Irina quickly got round to emptying into yet more cages, and which the rest of us then sorted into the relevant piles. Once this was done it was then a case of loading the now sorted bags into cages, parking them by the lift and getting them back to the upper floor where Graham and Rebecca were in charge of parking.

With darkness descending, and the clock ticking way beyond 8pm, Chris produced (from somewhere) one final large wooden pallet full of bags, which we quickly got sorted and caged...and we called it an evening.

As always Chris was extremely grateful for our collective efforts, as he outlined his master plan to us for the most efficient way to manage the storage and distribution of all the bags - we'll be back in a month's time (27th October) to further progress his vision...