Canonbury Square has been described by the Evening Standard as “London’s most beautiful square”. But it takes work to keep it that way.

There were several tasks to be undertaken, so it was good that six GoodGymers were on hand to assist. Dan and Byron worked on the composters while Alison, Emily, Ines and John shared the task of sweeping the paths. There was even time for some weeding before a coffee and a chat.

On an absolutely Baltic evening (2 degrees and threatening to snow!), 5 intrepid Goodgymmers met at the Arsenal Community Hub for Goodgym Islington's annual Christmas tree pick-up task! We began with a dynamic warm up on the Emirates Stadium slopes (much appreciated considering the weather!) before heading towards Whistler Street, and onwards towards Highbury Fields. Area Activator Simon even found a tree on route, and scaled a solid ascent and descent before dropping it off at the designated Islington council drop point outside the Highbury Leisure Centre.

Perhaps he was training for our next Goodgym Race Team: Met League Cross Country Fixture in Welwyn Garden City on Saturday 13th January?

https://www.goodgym.org/happenings/met-league-cross-country-welwyn-garden-city-274823d4-9ad0-4792-82e7-56681fbec46c

Upon our arrival, we split up into two groups- team 1 (Alison and Byron) headed to the North of the park, while team 2 (Paul and Adam) ran South, on the search of discarded Christmas trees. Within 20 minutes, we were able to drop off 5 trees from the surrounding area, ready to be recycled!

For the last part of our session, we decided to run to Paradise Park, by Freightliner's Farm to try a new area for Xmas tree pick-ups. This proved to be a great idea, as we found a Massive Christmas Tree in a church yard on route, and proceeded in directing this tree down McKenzie Road! Great job team! 4 more trees were discovered while we were making our way over, bringing our number to 10 recycled Xmas Trees on a very cold Monday evening. Wonderful work all!

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Goodgym Islington News

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St Mungo's Hilldrop House Group Run

Monday 15th January, 6.45pm, Emirates Stadium

Our next group run will be a return trip to St Mungo's Hilldrop House to continue our fine gardening help around the resident entrance for this important homelessness response centre.

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/group-run-st-mungo-s-hilldrop-house-2

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ON Running and JENKI run club- Thursday morning matcha runs!

Every Thursday, 7am, ON Running Spitalfields, Brushfield Street

Area Activator Simon has set up a series of morning runs, hosted every Thursday morning at the new ON Running store in Spitalfields market.

A social 5km before work, with the option to take out a pair of ON Running shoes for a test spin. Followed by complimentary matcha and hot drinks provided by the team at JENKI, Brushfield Street.

First run on Thursday 11th January:

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/jenki-matcha-with-on-running-spitalfields-group-run-january-specials-74ffed0a-6aff-4c94-ba19-cba06124500c

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GoodGym London - January Social- Market Halls Canary Wharf

Friday 12th January, 6.30pm, Market Halls Canary Wharf

Our next all boroughs social will be held at the awesome Market Halls London venue next to the new Elizabeth Line station in Canary Wharf. Excellent food, plenty of refreshments and good times!

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/goodgym-london-january-social

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Run Tour of Islington Parks #2- ON Running Group Run

Tuesday 16th January, 6pm, ON Running Spitalfields, Brushfield Street

Did you know that the borough of Islington contains 121 listed green spaces according to The Green Classroom?

To celebrate a great year with Goodgym Islington, Area Activator Simon will be planning a social run to visit as many of these as possible within 45 - 60 minutes! We are planning to continue this project over the month of January, to see if we can visit every Islington green space during Goodgym runs.

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/tour-of-islington-parks-2-on-running-group-run-1bbd1f19-0e98-49af-846d-b259f320ed9a

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Post Group Run Social- Happy January!

Monday 29th January, 8.45pm, Memsaab Islington

Following our final group run of the January Challenge, and Frannie from Octopus Community Network's last Goodgym task, we are planning on visiting Memsaab Indian restaurant for delicious curry and refreshments!

https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/post-group-run-social-memsaab-islington-happy-january

Aine and goodgym newbie Byron met bright and early at 7.30 on a Monday morning to lend a much needed helping hand to Bethnal Green Foodbank.

After Aine and Fiona had helped out the day before in a shortened Sunday task window there were some left over sorting and stock taking tasks that Aine and Byron jumped on board with alongside about 15-20 other volunteers who were co-ordinating the client day at the site. This also included unpacking deliveries from our friends over at Felix Project.

In between stock jobs Byron helped out with shopping on behalf of clients (their order is sent through to the iPad, Byron got their bag and extras and delivered to them outside) while Aine generally ran around showing volunteers the site which is new to the usual Monday gang but old to anyone who’s previously volunteered on Tuesdays or Wednesdays (“where does this go? Where do we keep this? Where is the coffee??” - all important questions for such an early task.)

Bow foodbank continue to need our help with handy Sunday afternoon or pre work Monday morning tasks coming over the next few weeks.

See below link to sign up next Monday https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/new-monday-morning-session-bg-foodbank-distribution-session-07c2083a-9e70-4106-b41f-e2d64bf15bf3

or next Sunday https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/new-sunday-session-bg-foodbank-packing-session-e47d20c7-540d-4fe6-9fdb-aa0fe4a7b3aa