On Tuesday myself and Liz ran 6.6 km to St Augustine's to help out in the community garden. When we arrived Ingrid had already started in the task, however Sue briefed us on what she'd like us to do. This was the smallest group we've visited with and when we were told there was a Ton bag of wood chips to move to the back of the church, I thought to myself we were in for a long one. That wasn't the case as we soon had a system in place and within a wink of an eye we had emptied enough of the wood chips for two of us to be able to lift it to the back and spread the remainder under Sue's watchful eyes, ensuring we put it in the right place. After completing the task we said our farewells and myself and Liz ran back to East Croydon.

last night we ran 6.1km in humid temperature to St Augustines' chruch.

Next week Tuesday will be a big day for them and the community garden, they are going to be judged for London in Bloom. All our hard work in the winter months rain/snow makes them very proud to be a contender in London in Bloom. Unfortunately the judges will not get to see the array of colours we witnessed in spring when the Tulips and Daffodils were in bloom, however, Sue and Bill have taken photos of the flowers and plants throughout the various seasons and put them together in a nice briefing for the assessor.

When we arrived at St Augustines' Sue as always had a list of stuff for us to complete, clearing up the wood chips from the car park, cutting down a dead tree and cutting it up into small pieces for the shredder to be turned into wood chips for the flower beds. We did some weeding and sweeping of the car park for its important meeting next week.

Next week we will be running 1km to our litter picking Picnic in Park Hill, bring your friends and family along with some drinks and snacks.

Upcoming events

22nd July 2023 Summer Social Rounders: Victoria Park (Away game) - North vs. South of the River

30th July 2023 Run for Jo 5k family friendly run in memory of Jo Cox

7th September 2023 GoodGym London Monthly Social

On Tuesday 5 members ran 6.9km, to St Augustine's Church to help out in the church yard ahead of the judging for the London in bloom on Friday 8 July.

When we arrived we were met by Sue who had a list of things she wanted us to do in preparation for the big day. * Watering the fruit trees * Cutting the grass out around the trees * inserting watering pipes to the root of the trees * placing stakes into the ground around 3 tress to help them grow straight * Repositioning compost bins

We were able to complete all the tasks Sue had for us and at the end we were rewarded with banana bread she had baked for us to refuel on before our run back to Solutions.

Lets do more good in July Have you heard about the virtual run around the world competition throughout July being hosted by Run Things? Run Things gives half its profits to GoodGym and Mind, so any support we can give them is really encouraged.

The Run Around the World pits Teams North, South, East, West and Nomads against each other in a foot race around the equator. GoodGym is the captain of the Nomads, so when you sign up, make sure you choose Nomads.

A great thing about the event is that you can create a team so that all of your GoodGym friends can sign up and join your team, too. Once you've created the team, they just need to register and click 'join a team' and search for your team. It's a great chance for different GoodGym groups to have some friendly competition throughout the month, too!

There are medals for all participants, as well as competitions and a month of motivation. So please do sign up and encourage others to do so, too.

Remember to sign up to next weeks group run here

Last night we could feel the shift in the weather but as they say the show must go on!

We welcomed Gemma to her first group run, she found out a about goodgym while browsing instagram, she informed me that she was interested as goodgym did two of the things she liked, running and helping people. If you have not cheered her as yet please click on her name above and give her some cheer.

Most of our task at St Augustine's are normally in the outdoor area but last night's was different, we finally managed to bag an indoor task and quite fitting too as the weather was somewhat a bit colder.

The safety tape on the edge of the stairs leading to (hell) only joking the basement (good doers like us are always on the rise to the pearly gates) had lost it's grip and was a trip hazard for the users. Bill had removed the old tape but asked for our assistance in putting on the new tape.

A job like this for one person is quite time consuming but with 7 GoodGym members we were to get the job done in a timely manner.

There was another task for us to assist with however due to the room being used by another group we were not able to get access to the room, we will have to return at a later date to complete this task.

Bill was very thankful for our help, he had also provide some snack for us at the end, we were truly blessed.

Bless us father we have done thy work to a goodgym standard

On accomplishing our goal we were able to:

Not slip up;

Take it one step at a time;

Stick to the step;

Step in the right direction;

Prevent others from backsliding.

Check out all the various missions currently available in Croydon are you able to assist?

Have you signed up for our next group run as yet?

Some of the contents of this report have been written for dramatic purposes and is in no way intended to cause any offense, if offense cause please contact the report writer, who will amend accordingly. Conroy

Amen

Two Croydon Goodgymers Nicola and Ian, visited St Augustine’s Church during Volunteers’ Week to help with their community garden. Sue, our usual contact at the church, wanted assistance in digging up a large phormium plant and splitting it into parts which were to be distributed among the community. This was not straightforward as leaves were sharp and we had to do lots of digging and add water to soften the soil around deep seated roots. Sue enlisted another helper and we all wrenched the plant from the ground leaving a deep muddy hole which Sue sunk her foot into up to her knee! All was well and we then refilled the hole with a different plant. We ended with a good catch up chat and Sue was very pleased.

Tonight was a lovely evening to get stuck in to a few garden tasks at St Augustines and the GoodGym team included myself Andy, Hannah, Nikki, Kate and Ian. Great to see everyone!

Always lots to do at the church garden and we were tasked with clearing rocks and rubble, neatening the edges of the garden beds, watering some of the new trees and starting to help restore a bench.

It was great to reflect on the progress that has been made through our visits and other community involvement and we even had a flying visit from a familiar red breasted robin!