Sanding at the theatre Branded a volunteer What will they say Monday at work?

Someday, when the toilets are painted Somehow, someway, our two worlds will be one

I sit, I wonder whyyyyy… Oh why you left the walls so smooth Oh, GoodGym, baby

A great philosopher once said:

You gotta roll with it. You gotta take your time. You gotta spray where you spray. Don't let anybody get in your way

Tonight, GoodGym Ealing heeded the wise philosophers words while at Impact Theatre. We were there to work on a corridor. A corridor that our some of our members remember prepping over recent years.

We were only 8 who ventured up to Perivale so that we wouldn't get in each others way during the task. We were to wield paint rollers and cover the walls with white paint, replacing the old terracotta colour that was peeking through the undercoat.

We quickly got our equipment ready with Kash pouring paint into roller trays. Jenni, Emily, Madhan, Kat and Sevan grabbed rollers and paint brushes while Cam and a vertically challenged (so he claimed) Mike grabbed rollers on extendable poles to reach the heights.

For the first 20 minutes, it looked like we were removing more paint from the walls that we were adding to them. More and more terracotta paint appeared and we were all a bit worried. While we discussed what to do next, we saw that some of us were sprayed with paint, while others had managed to avoid getting any white freckles.

As the first coat dried, we were able to paint over it and get the second coat to stick. Finally we were making progress and the walls actually looked whiter than when we had arrived! With the second coat still wet, we decided the most productive thing we could do was take the time for a tea break.

We sat in the kitchen area with Peter from Impact Theatre. He told us about the roles that Impact's actors had had on TV and how they had adapted during Covid. Luckily they'd survived and are planning for their next theatre production in the summer.

After 15 minutes, Jenni went back to check on the walls and see if we'd be able to add a third and final coat. Unfortunately not, so we packed up and washed the paint rollers, promising Peter we'd be back to finish the job in the coming months.

We always get a warm welcome at Impact Theatre, a wonderful community arts project. Tonight we were adding a second coat of paint to corridor walls in readiness for Impact's big community day on 9 July. The place has to look its best when you have visitors arriving! At times, we struggled to see which bits we'd painted and which we hadn't. But, in true dogid GoodGym style, we pressed on and got the job done!

We love going up to Impact Theatre to help out. Three of us ran up there from our regular meeting point and we met three more there. Tonight we started to decorate a corridor to brighten it up. There were lots of signed photos of celebrities on the wall to unscrew and take down, including Daniel Craig as James Bond, filling in the holes (can you get the pun now?! Thanks Ben!) and then doing a first coat of paint on the opposite wall. We'll be back to finish the job off in a few weeks.

Today 6 enthusiastic members on the Bromptom teamed joined GoodGym for the first time to get stuck in helping at the IMPACT Theatre in Perivale!

IMPACT is a registered charity dedicated to promoting a positive image of disability, developing communication and building self-confidence, through participation in performing and creative arts. Today the Brompton team really got to experience what IMPACT is all about as we not only helped them with the task of moving a lot of props into storage but they were also treated to a private viewing of their current immersive exhibition.

What you stairing at?!

The first part of our morning at IMPACT involved a lot of lifting and a lot of stairs! The props they needed help moving were to be shifted to a different building up some stairs so each move definitely had us getting our exercise in for the day. It's what GoodGym is all about! This is the sort of task the team here really appreciate help with as it allows them to spend more time doing fun stuff with their amazing service users.

Then it was time to fully immerse ourselves!

After we'd moved all the props to their new home (in super quick time I might add!) it was time to get a first hand experience of what the theatre is all about. Kim, the theatre's manager, and a couple of the service users who'd been involved in creating the immersive experience showed us through the space and allowed us to watch the amazing work they had produced over lockdown. It really was a treat to be invited to a private viewing and to sit and relax in the exhibition for half an hour of all our busy hectic lives.

With a 2 mile cycle each way, a physical task helping a great local charity and a wonderful theatre experience, hopefully the Brompton team went into the rest of their day feeling uplifted and invigorated!

19 runners with 1 mission, to paint the corridors at Impact Theatre!

Shout outs!

• We were joined by three new runners, big welcome to Dave, Sam and George.
• We had a GG tourist in our midst, hello to JP from Richmond who joined Ealing on good deed number 94.
• We cheered Jenni for her new parkrun PB on Saturday following her half marathon PB the weekend before, she's on fire! 🔥
• And lastly we had a special mention for Milly who has written an awesome story on the website where she talks about what GoodGym means to her - Read it here!

We kicked things off with a brief warm up and because we're always talking about such good things I thought I'd find out some dirt on you all. Enter BADGYM. We did a roll call where everyone had to reveal their worst habit... leaving sweaty running clothes around the house, leaving the kitchen in a mess, always being late and even the odd cheeky cigarette were confused to. Good to know we aren't perfect all the time... well except a few who claimed they had no bad habits at all!

The show must go on

And after a 3km run (taking in a few inclines) what a show we put on at the theatre last night! Rollers rolling, brushes brushing and masking tape well... masking! We worked in teams of one tall person to two... 'less tall people' to reach all the heights on different sections of wall. We also had a excellent small team painting the skirting on another section too, it really was a hive of activity and it didn't take long for us to coat everything needed in a fresh lick of paint.

Peter, one of the senior tutors there also gave everyone a great overview of what happens in the theatre and spoke about all the upcoming events they have going on.

"IMPACT is a registered charity dedicated to promoting a positive image of disability, developing communication and building self-confidence, through participation in performing and creative arts."

With that we cleared up the brushes and rollers (big thanks to Lionel for staying to clean everything up) and headed back into the night for another undulating run back to base. Thanks to Chris for leading the front of the run and to Harvey for backmarking on the outbound trip and Alex on the way home.

Until next time!