Our compact team took to the streets of Canning Town to spread the word about Cody Dock’s “Lighting Up the Lea” Open Day—an event that takes place across not just one, but three festivals: Open House, Totally Thames, and Newham Heritage Month. Armed with flyers, we were on a mission to spark curiosity and draw in the crowd. The event is always fantastic, and we’d highly recommend a visit—check out all the details below!

When:
Saturday, 20 September 2025, from 11 am to 6 pm

Where:
Cody Dock, 11c South Crescent, Canning Town, London E16 4TL

What to Expect:
Free activities, workshops, exhibitions, performances, and new installations. Tours of the Cody Dock Boatyard and Frederick Kitchen restoration and a chance to explore the site’s arts, ecology, and heritage offerings.

Here’s the Cody Dock event page with full details: codydock.org.uk

Next week we're back at Emmanuel Church, this time to put our painting abilities to the test - sign up here.

Graham and Brad took on the welcoming duties tonight at the Aquatics Center as Renata joined us for her first Goodgym group run.

Kevin and I did a run and DLR journey to Cody Dock

Leaflets had been left in a lock box for us and a new area for delivery tonight.

A pleasant surprise was seeing Simon (the Dad of Cody Dock) he let us have a look around the new visitor center and bar area...also got to see where the new cafe will be and the heritage center.

So many changes in the nearly nine years we have been helping at this wonderful hidden gem in Newham.

Pop along and see for you self this Saturday as they host their Summer Open Day

Thank you to Graham for stepping in to lead the run from Print House to Cody Dock for me,knew running wasn't going to happen for me due to a migraine.

We welcomed back Martin for a return visit to Newham and it was also great to see Paige back.

Julia one of the awesome team met us at Cody Dock and let us know what we can look forward to at the Spring Forward event,also go to look inside at the new visitors centre....opening is imminent.

We headed down to Star Lane and split into 3 groups to cover as many roads as possible to post our leaflets to let as many residents as possible know about the upcoming event.

Well done to Rosa,Hilary,Eugene and Graham managing to run to,from and during tonights session after the awesome effort of your trail half marathon in Wales....wow those hills(see photo of elevation they ran)

Last night saw round 2 of GoodGym Newham's fast flyering for Cody Dock's Frost Fair, coming up on 30th November.

Firstly though, a congratulations to the Princes, Kev and Sharon, respectively our figurative patriarch and matriarch, on their 30th wedding anniversay! And they would have chosen our group run to celebrate it too, had work and illness not gotten in the way. We'll have to save the OJ & Lemonades till next time...

Back to the task - great to have a few more of us this week, which certainly helped with the pretty substantial stack of flyers we were to post through letterboxes to promote the Frost Fair in the local community. Apparently flyering does make a difference to the number of people attending Cody Dock's events, and we even had a special request to go a bit further north of Star Lane, getting the word out to even more folks than we would usually cover. I think we distributed about 700 flyers between the two weeks, so well done everyone!

Just a plug for the event though if anyone is tempted to go (and we've been to past iterations - they are highly recommended) - the Frost Fair is a free community event with craft stalls, outdoor games, live music, fire sculpture, choir singing, food & drink, a free cycle maintenance workshop and other activities. More details on the Cody Dock website

For anyone tempted by gardening and excellent post-task snacks, we're at Emanuel Church this Saturday, and then off to the Adventure Playground next Tues - deets to follow on the WhatsApp.

A pleasantly warm evening for the team of four

A quick catch up at The Print house before we headed down the River Lea to Cody Dock

Hilary had thankfully collected the leaflets earlier in the day as when we arrived the Dock was i darkness and locked up...so a slight detour before we headed towards Star Lane

We decided to stay as one group and managed to post most of the leaflets and gentle walk back to the Print House and decided to deliver a few more leaflets.

Still plenty of streets to let know about the Frost Fair so will be returning towards Star Lane to deliver the last of the flyers.

Swansong session yesterday, with a tremendous turnout of some of my favourite people, a lovely conclusion to a job that gave me so much.

It transpired that I've run out of Random Weekly Questions, trying to refrain from a deeper enquiry about change or anything of the tear-jerking variety, hence I was blank; so we rolled a positive and somewhat sentimental question: "Favourite GoodGym organisation ?" Turns out there were loads, no clear winner, an indication of how broad our church is and how many remarkable local projects there are.

I then proceeded to say a few words, delving into what GoodGym has given me. For those who know me know that discussing and interrogating my emotions isn't what I consider a night out, I'm a huge advocate for the dated practice of bottling things up, but the occasion was worthy.

To reiterate what I may have mumbled, I'm mostly grateful for the lifelong friendships, enforced by the experiences of volunteering, running, British weather, travelling, racing and drinking. With a special nod to a lovely couple, whose relationship was forged by a series of Wednesday evening connections. Proud, for the impact we have had on the locality, the number of messages I get saying "how amazing your volunteers are". Equally, proud for the transformational change many of you have undergone through running. Loss, because I will miss you all. But I always end with this positive feeling; I think because it's now left in a very capable set of hands; arise Task Force.

Amongst this milestone, we did actually do some good yesterday, in the form of my least favourite task, flyering. The morale was high, so it was hit easily absorbed. With the return of some long-serving sisters, Mel and Ruth (and later Charlotte), it felt like 2019 again, what a treat to see you, appreciate the effort to come. With big numbers comes big effect, and we managed to get our flyering done in no time, leaving many moments to loiter and talk curb-side.

With the realisation I can't summarise nor do justice to my thoughts on my tenure, I'll wrap this up now. But not after a huge thanks to my lovely photo-book compilation.

It's not bye, but see you later.

Till next time,

B