We were rolling out the donated clothes, toys and books today so the hotel residents could get some Summer Wardrobes. We had to reassure people that the UK truly does get hotter than this current blip, over the Summer months.

Faves today were a purple Grease megamix style bomberjacket for a teenage resident. The teddies went down like hot cakes with the kids. Emma did a lot of babysitting and entertaining the kids, which she is a natural at!

Four of us volunteers set up and set down together and it was quite quiet so we had plenty of time for chats and searching the web for useful resources. One guy from Iran that I spoke to wanted to do a master’s in psychology, so he’s going to look into free courses to get started.

Will be great to come again as lots of donations get taken and are exactly what people need.

What better way to celebrate the message of the Big Plastic Count (Reduce Reuse Recycle) than to do a two for one special task helping out our friends at Get Rid of and Donate (GROAD).

GROAD directly benefits those underprivileged, impoverished communities and people in need of that extra support, providing immediate assistance with free clothing, shoes, and other living essentials and we were helping spread the word to the community around Brixton Water Lane so people could make donations of pre-used and pre-loved items to be redistributed.

Mark met AA Yianny at Papa's while we agreed with Louise and Jo to meet on the way as well as Marie-Noelle our resident walk leader!

We set off in 2s and 3s down various roads and by 8pm a huge stack of flyers had been reduced to almost nothing - and we barely got sprinkled on to boot, although just enough for a rainbow to appear, so that was a bonus :0)

It is a simple but satisfying task and one that we hope will make a big difference to GROAD in their search for donations to give a deserved 2nd life to. If you are interested in supporting GROAD why not sign up for one of our weekly Sunday sessions at St Faith's Church where the donations are packed and sorted? Check out the links below for the next couple (and they run every week!) https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/taking-in-and-sorting-donations-for-get-rid-of-donate-can-you-help-53ba1ab7-a400-46ad-ac04-765dbe637b52

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/taking-in-and-sorting-donations-for-get-rid-of-donate-can-you-help-553fd5fc-f470-49a1-997e-a027c55df4a2

Big thanks to all and see you next time!

Loads of people turned up for the donations and it was good to talk to everyone. I had a very pleasant day.

we got a work out in carrying the donations to and from shed 2 then helped to organise the donations

Two goodgymmers toon on the task of tidying up after the last GROAD of 2023

A quiet session with only the two donations today (right before 2pm) at The Edward Alleyn Club. All the donations seem like they were left at St. Faith’s. I did spend the start of the session sorting the items left in changing room 5.